Facebook’s decision to prevent Australian users from sharing news as a protest against the country’s mooted legislation requiring digital platforms to pay for news content has not only raised the stakes in the legal battle between Facebook and the Australian government, but is also a blow to regulatory authorities around the world.
Facebook implemented the restriction on the 18th, cutting off the main source of news for nearly one in five Australians. Some government agencies have also been blocked from reaching the public. These official Facebook pages posted information such as Epidemic prevention messages and weather warnings; Facebook claimed that these sites were “unexpectedly affected” and would be restored.
Australian Finance Minister Fredenberger accused Facebook of using strong-arm tactics to prevent people from getting reliable information. But he also said he had a “constructive discussion” with Facebook’s chief executive Zuckerman and agreed to discuss it further.
The conflict was sparked by a bill still being debated in Australia’s parliament, which aims to require that news content on digital platforms be paid for by the local media industry.
But Facebook’s response was not to pay, but to cut off the service in fear of setting a precedent in Australia for global regulatory authorities to follow.
Statistics from the Australian competition authority show that half of Australians access news content through Facebook and Google. Facebook cut off the news on the platform, highlighting the social media giant’s power to dominate the dissemination of information, which may give Facebook a major bargaining chip.
The Facebook platform, which has 17 million users in Australia, is now unable to share any news content published by Australian or international publishers. The move also creates a wall between Australian media sources and Facebook’s 2.8 billion users worldwide, preventing global users from sharing news content published by Australian publishers.
Facebook’s position is to resist the legislation, insisting that publishers are willing to post content on the Facebook site because it helps reach a wider audience.
Easton, Facebook’s director in Australia and New Zealand, stressed that the Australian bill proposes to punish Facebook for “unsolicited” content. He said Facebook referred about 5.1 billion news items worth an estimated A$407 million ($315 million) to Australian publishers for free last year, but did not specify how the estimate was made.
Facebook’s strong counterattack could provoke a global backlash. Angus, an associate professor of digital communications at Queensland University of Technology, said, “Other governments will wonder if they can hold good faith negotiations with Facebook. The Australian government can now say that the company is dangerously unregulated.”
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