Kingston, we have a problem.

Our problem is with Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. In harmony with how many feel about Mark Zuckerberg, the company is offering us a real devil’s bargain. Either we for all intents and purposes give up posting on Facebook, or we at Kingston Wire pay them for the privilege to do so. But there’s more: if we pay them, we avoid having to give Meta access to our website — an account with a password — so they can scrape our data for the ever-ravenous maw of their AI. If we don’t and still want to keep our page, we have to give them what amounts to the keys to our house for them to take whatever they want, whenever they want it.

Let us explain. This fall, Meta rolled out a new terms and conditions agreement. Your Editorial Team is like everyone else: We typically scroll to the bottom of a lot of legalese, numbed as the words blur into a waterfall of type, and click “accept.” But this one we read, and are very glad we did. The operative paragraph is worth quoting in full:

You authorize us (or any entity acting on our behalf) to use automated software (such as web scrapers, bots, robots, spiders, crawlers, and user agents) and create test credentials to access, index, cache, analyze, collect, retrieve, or crawl the domains, web pages, or URLs (and any content available through them) that are associated with your products or services, or that are made available through your or users’ use of Meta Company Products and services, and to periodically pull updates from such domains, web pages, or URLs. Meta may use any content from such domains, web pages, or URLs to provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain the integrity of, the Meta Company Products, services, and features provided under these Commercial Terms and any other applicable supplemental terms.

And did we mention that this doesn’t just apply to media? According to a story last week on medium.com with the spicy headline “Meta Wants to Read Your Website, and Facebook Just Signed the Permission Slip” the terms apply very broadly, not just to your friendly neighborhood hyperlocal news website: “The terms broadly cover accounts that manage pages and groups, run advertisements, send marketing messages or use the business dashboard. Virtually every news organization has at least one such account. It doesn’t stop at publishers. Photographers, freelancers, and small shops are in the same boat.”

The terms were originally slated to go into effect on Oct. 30, but they’ve been pushed back to Nov. 20. There’s no need to opt in, our out: By continuing to use Facebook after they go into effect, you agree to them.

We spoke of a choice before, but it’s not a very meaningful one. If we don’t cough up the money, which at $500 per page would cost us $12,000 annually, our access to the platform is, well, throttled doesn’t come close. We would be able to post two, eight or 20 links a month, depending on what lower-cost tier we chose. Both the Kingston Wire and Shawangunk Journal often post eight links a day to our Facebook pages.

Media groups are continuing to push back, arguing that the very platform they pay to access could undercut them by posting a news org’s own story at no charge to readers, even though the site itself probably has some kind of paywall. Why would anyone pay for something they can get for free?

When Facebook was opened to the public almost 20 years ago now, it revolutionized how people interact with the internet. Even back then, users gave the platform permission to gather marketing information about them but to those users, it was both free of charge and a fantastic way to share photos, links and opinions with friends, or the world at large. But Meta, like many other giant tech companies, has over the last several years put the squeeze on many of its users, especially those who use it to reach a large number of potential customers.

Now, we can’t actually say it’s evil for them to want money for what for many is an indispensable way to get their message, be it commercial, political or personal, across to thousands if not millions. They own the operation and infrastructure that makes Meta’s platforms work and under a free(ish)-market economic system, it makes perfect sense to want a taste of the revenue their sites made possible.

But we’ve commented before on how everybody of late wants more and more money from a user base which is increasingly strapped for cash. For some, 12 large a year is not a big thing or even a thing at all. But for small businesses, having to pay that money is difficult at best, crushing at worst.

Your Editorial Team will have to give this careful consideration. We will need to assess how much traffic our Facebook/Instagram posts generate, and weigh that against the fact that we do not have a ton of money to play with. We’ve said this a few times before, but we’ll say it again: No one’s getting rich off of Kingston Wire. Very truly, we are not in it for the money. We do it because we love journalism and love our community enough to care about making fact-based content. It’s a scramble for us every year to get what we need to keep going; we are beyond grateful to everyone who subscribes, advertises or donates to our crowdfunding endeavors.

We don’t want to leave Facebook. We think it’s a great way to connect with readers and creates a space where people can talk about the local news. But we don’t think we can under any circumstances allow Meta to get in through our back door and do what they want with our content. If we choose not to pay, we’ll take our pages down, kiss Zuckerberg goodbye and do our best without it.

Big tech already heavily influences politics and the media nowadays, to a point where freedom of the press is increasingly shaky and long-trusted news outlets are no longer independent scrutinizers of power, but lackeys servile to it. In 1787, Thomas Jefferson wrote this in a letter: “The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” We reckon TJ and many other Founders would be shocked and dismayed by what’s going on today in the country they fought and died to create.

Like we said, we will have to give this very careful consideration. We hope Meta will relent and change its terms to something a little less like cyberburglary. If they don’t, and these companies increasingly act as if they’re accountable to no one, we’ll have to make a choice. After all, it is said that if you must sup with the devil, it’s best to use a very long spoon.