The war between Big Tech and the Australian government is heating up. First shot fired was Google threatening to pull its services from Australia entirely. Now Facebook has gone nuclear and canned all local and international news.
The move is the latest in the high-stakes standoff against the Morrison government’s groundbreaking mandatory media code that sought to make the social media giants pay publishers for content they’d been putting online for free. While Google had threatened to blacklist Australian users, it quickly caved and made a deal. In just the past week, Google signed a raft of agreements with Australian publishers, including Seven West Media, News Corp and others. Google will now pay the publishers to host their content on its News Showcase.
But Zuckerberg apparently thinks himself above having to deal with such petty concerns as governments and laws.
Managing Director, Facebook Australia and New Zealand William Easton on Thursday (AEDT) announced its decision to ban both users and publishers from sharing or viewing news content, citing Australia’s proposed media bargaining code which it said “fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers”.
Facebook claims it was left with two options. “It has left us facing a stark choice: Attempt to comply with a law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or stop allowing news content on our services in Australia,” Mr Easton said in a statement. “With a heavy heart, we are choosing the latter.”
Yet, Google was able to comply with the law. Facebook was also able to reach a deal with publishers in the UK. In Britain, Facebook will pay most British newspapers to license their content on a forthcoming dedicated news section.
But, global bully that it is, Facebook thinks it can pick on the smaller kids.
Like another global bully, China, Facebook might be in for a surprise.
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher told Ben Fordham on 2GB that Facebook’s decision had sent a very strong message about its credibility. “The decision they’re taking seems … that what they want to do is remove credible news sources from the platform,” he said.
“It basically says to Australians if you’re looking for credible news, Facebook isn’t the place to look for it”[…]
Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg spoke to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday and says a pathway with Facebook remains open. “We agreed to continue our conversation to try to find a pathway forward,” he said […]
Zuckerberg’s minions are trying to baffle us with bullshit when it comes to the sort of money they’re spinning off other people’s content.
Facebook claimed it had little business gain from news content which, it said, made up less than four per cent of content in users’ news feeds […]
The Australian
Given that Facebook’s revenue last year was was $86 billion, that means that it reaps a tidy $3.4 billion from news content.
China has been shocked and baffled by the unexpected steel of the Australian government in the face of its heavy-handed bullying. Mark Zuckerberg might find out the same.
This move may very likely backfire on the social media titan.
If nothing else, Australians will just go back to posting photos of their pets and what they had for lunch and Facebook’s efforts to control people’s information and influence public opinion will fall back to zero.
Please share this article so that others can discover The BFD