Facebook suddenly banned the Australian media to share news scholars worry about the growing hegemony of social platforms
The Australian government intends to legislate to force Facebook and Google and other online platforms to pay Australian news organizations for reprinting news. Facebook then hit back, not allowing Australian users to share news on its social media platforms, saying the bill misunderstood the relationship between social media platforms and the media. Australian Prime Minister Morrison criticized Facebook as “arrogant and disappointing”. Some scholars say that the reason for this incident is that as the hegemony of social platforms becomes more serious, people and even the government worry whether the online world is really free. This Time, Facebook banned the dissemination of information, hampering the freedom of the press.
The Australian government submitted a bill to Parliament on Wednesday (17) to legislate to force Facebook and Google and other platforms to pay the Australian news agencies when reproducing news to protect the interests of the press.
Facebook counteracts blocking Australian news
Facebook is the first to counteract this, announcing on Thursday (18) that it will restrict Australian news content, and local users will not be able to share news content on the social media platform, while foreign users will not be able to access or share Australian news content from Facebook. Facebook also said the Australian bill misunderstood the relationship between social media platforms and media, that the news media voluntarily put articles or content on Facebook to publish, in itself has attracted more citizens to read news through Facebook. This move will earn Australian publishers more than 400 million Australian dollars in 2020.
Facebook continued to say that the bill is vague on the definition of news content, so it will be “defined by broad standards for news pages.”
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and other Australian media pages have been deleted, and even the Meteorological Department, the health department and the “disaster emergency unit” page also ceased to operate, the authorities can not immediately publish important information, suspected that due to errors in the algorithm of classification and judgment, these departments by Facebook It is suspected that due to errors in the algorithm of classification and judgment, these departments were misjudged by Facebook as “news media” and blocked indiscriminately. Subsequently, Facebook issued a statement saying that government pages “should not be affected”.
David Anderson, managing director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), said, “The New crown outbreak is continuing to affect all Australians and Facebook has removed important and credible news and information sources from its Australian platform.
Morrison criticizes Facebook’s “arrogance”
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Australian Prime Minister Morrison said the move was arrogant and disappointing. He criticized Facebook’s behavior, which only proves that more and more countries have concerns about the technology giant that is bigger than the government is normal. Morrison also made it clear that the current draft legislation should not apply to these technology giants, and he encouraged “Facebook to work constructively with the Australian government, just as Google has recently shown its good faith”.
Google makes a U-turn, reaches agreement with mainstream Australian media
After the bill was introduced, Google had said it was considering not providing search engine services for Australia. However, Google announced on Wednesday that it had reached an agreement with three major Australian mainstream media outlets, including Seven West Media, Nine Entertainment Co. and News Corp, to pay for news content estimated to be worth millions of dollars. The agreement is estimated to be worth millions of Australian dollars so that they can continue to display links to news stories on Google services. Google declined to comment on Facebook’s actions.
Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg denounced Facebook as “heavy-handed” and said it was only hurting its own reputation in Australia.
Frydenberg said: “Facebook is wrong and their decision to block Australian nationals from accessing government websites, whether for epidemics, mental health, emergency services and the Bureau of Meteorology, has nothing to do with media legislation that has not yet passed the Senate. Today’s events for all Australian nationals confirm the enormous market power of these social media giants.
Feldenberg revealed a 30-minute call with Facebook founder Zuckerberg, describing the conversation as constructive. Australia wants Facebook to stay in Australia, but at the same time wants them to pay for original content, and it is now up to them to resolve their mutual difficulties.
Huang Weiguo: worried about whether the online world is truly free
Baptist University Department of Political Science and International Relations former assistant professor Huang Weiguo said in an interview with this station, Facebook and other platforms earn disproportionate profits is only one of the reasons, more important is that people began to worry about whether the online world is really a free space, or is beyond the control of the national government space.
Google, for example, has a lot of censorship on the Internet, and even Google itself has a targeted approach to speech, which may be particularly relevant to China, Huang said. So good may feel that these social media seem to monopolize the entire public space, whether it will pose a potential threat to society or the state, business interests are also one of the reasons for the government to take action.
Huang Weiguo continued to point out that this time Facebook banned the dissemination of information, will certainly have an impact on its image, this kind of hegemonic behavior will be criticized, do not rule out other countries may follow Australia’s example.
Huang Weiguo said: I guess other countries, whether it is civil society or even organizations concerned about the freedom of network security will certainly exert pressure on the local government, or make the local government feel that it is time for some social media hegemony or speech control, and then step up the relevant (measures). Of course, the government may have a network security or even data, artificial intelligence data collection as a reason to further question or through hearings, to these transnational media social organizations to give an account.
Ding Shufan: Facebook practices hinder freedom of the press
Also concerned about this incident, Professor Emeritus Ding Shu Fan of the Institute of East Asian Studies at National Chengchi University in Taiwan told the station that Facebook’s actions this time will inevitably affect the dissemination of news, to a certain extent, impede freedom of the press.
Ding Shu Fan said: frankly speaking, if he (Facebook) banned the Australian government’s news, it will somewhat hamper the freedom of the press, there will be this consequence within. But now only Facebook has restrictions, other Twitter or YouTube does not have restrictions, so it is in a gray area.
In addition, Human Rights Watch issued a statement saying that “this new development is alarming and dangerous, and it is unconscionable to cut off the nation’s access to important information overnight.
Australian bill may set precedent for Europe to follow
The Financial Times reports that MEPs responsible for drafting new digital regulations in Europe are planning to follow Australia’s legislation to force web giants such as Alphabet (Google’s parent company) and Facebook to pay the media for pushing news content. MEP Alex Saliba, a Maltese member of the European Parliament, said the Australian approach would address the media’s lack of bargaining power in the face of technology giants. He questioned the market dominance enjoyed by large online platforms in search, social media and advertising, creating a power imbalance.
Australia’s new bill would establish a “News Media Bargaining Code” in which social media would negotiate substantive payments with media for access to news content, and smaller media organizations could join together to negotiate as a group or agree to “standard” prices proposed by social networks. Smaller media organizations can join together to negotiate as a group or agree to a “standard” price proposed by the social networks. In addition to the private sector, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Australian Special Broadcasting Service are also protected.
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