Link Taxes
Link Taxes are proposals to require technology platforms to pay publishers when they include links or snippets of headlines or article previews from news websites. Local news outlets face a variety of tough challenges, but link taxes don’t offer a viable solution. Instead, they punish lawful fair uses that are the lifeblood of the internet while funneling power and resources to the hedge funds and global conglomerates that are gutting local news.
Re:Create opposes link tax legislation because it…
- Accelerates big media’s consolidation of local news outlets.
- Impedes access to news by incentivizing platforms to limit linking and summarizing.
- Exacerbates and incentivizes misinformation and clickbait.
- Rewards hedge funds and big media conglomerates that are destroying local journalism.
- Violates the First Amendment by forcing websites to publish specific content.
- Tramples fair use and the public domain by creating quasi-property rights in links and summaries