KazPost

Kazakhstan News
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Facebook faces a global backlash over its bid to 'bully' Australia

Facebook faces a global backlash over its bid to 'bully' Australia

Facebook's decision to block people from sharing news in Australia has been rebuked by lawmakers around the world, raising the specter of a much wider showdown between the world's biggest social media platform and the governments and news organizations fighting to check its power.

Elected officials and media publishers in the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and the United States slammed Facebook's actions on Thursday, suggesting they were anti-competitive and underscored the need for a regulatory crackdown.

"It is one of the most idiotic but also deeply disturbing corporate moves of our lifetimes," Julian Knight, the lawmaker who chairs the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee in Britain's parliament, told broadcaster Sky News.

In a statement shared with CNN Business, Knight said that UK lawmakers will use pending legislation aimed at regulating social media companies to ensure platforms such as Facebook promote "trusted news sources."

"This action — this bully boy action — that [Facebook has] undertaken in Australia will I think ignite a desire to go further amongst legislators around the world," he added in an interview with Reuters.

David Cicilline, a Democratic congressman from Rhode Island who chairs the House Antitrust Subcommittee, echoed that sentiment. He said that "if it is not already clear," Facebook's actions in Australia demonstrate that the company "is not compatible with democracy."

"Threatening to bring an entire country to its knees to agree to Facebook's terms is the ultimate admission of monopoly power," he said in a post on Twitter (TWTR).

Canadian heritage minister Steven Guilbeault said on Twitter that "Facebook's actions are highly irresponsible and have jeopardized the safety of the Australian people." "We will continue to move forward to put in place fair legislation between news media and web giants," he added.

Publishers seized the opportunity to fire shots at the platform, which dominates the digital advertising business along with Google. In Germany, the Federation of German Newspaper Publishers (BDZV) called on governments to restrict Facebook's influence.

"It is high time that governments around the world limit the market power of gatekeeper platforms," said Dietmar Wolff, general manager of BDZV. "The fact that a platform simply shuts down pages at will in order to build up political pressure shows where the problem with the American network monopoly lies on the internet," said Wolff.

The backlash followed a decision by Facebook on Wednesday to bar Australians from finding or sharing news from local and international outlets on its platform, escalating a fight with the government over a new law that will force tech companies to pay news publishers for content posted to their platforms. Sharing news links from Australian publishers is also restricted outside the country.

Facebook (FB) and Google (GOOGL) have tussled with publishers for years over how they display their content. Media companies, which have lost out on billions of dollars in advertising revenue to online platforms, argue the tech giants should pay them for showing their content. Defenders of the platforms say they drive huge audiences to news websites at no cost.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, are already taking steps to curb the power of social media platforms in favor of news organizations. For example, new copyright laws in the European Union led Google to agree to pay French news publishers for their content, in a deal that could be replicated elsewhere.

Facebook's move came after months of tension with the Australian government over the proposed law, known as the News Media Bargaining Code. The company believes it gives the government too much power to decide the price that platforms pay for news and which publishers are remunerated. Facebook also argues that the proposed law ignores the value that its services bring to publishers.

The extent of Facebook's influence was made clear when, alongside blocking news content, it inadvertently froze the accounts of fire and emergency services, domestic violence charities, and government health agencies. Facebook is reinstating pages that it didn't intend to block.

"It's an illustration of the extraordinary power a private company wields in a public space," said Rasmus Nielsen, the director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. "Many governments and politicians around the world are concerned about that and want more direct political and regulatory oversight over how they wield that power," he told CNN Business.

"I personally think it's quite problematic that Facebook has made this unilateral decision without warning or a transition period, but it's a private for-profit company and they are doing what they believe is in their self interest," Nielsen added.

Henry Faure Walker, the chairman of Britain's News Media Association, said that Facebook's actions demonstrate why regulators need to coordinate globally to create a "truly level playing field between the tech giants and news publishers."

What Facebook did is "a classic example of a monopoly power being the school yard bully, trying to protect its dominant position," added Walker, who is also CEO of Britain's largest local newspaper publisher, Newsquest.

Entrenching dominance?


Both Facebook and Google have debuted programs to pay for news in recent years, as authorities around the world consider new laws to keep them in check. Facebook, for example, created Facebook News, a section of the app featuring curated news stories where selected publishers are paid for participating.

In a bid to get ahead of Australia's new legislation, Google took a very different approach to Facebook. In recent days, the search engine announced partnerships with some of the country's largest media organizations, including Robert Murdoch's News Corp (NWS) and Seven West Media.

Google has signed deals with more than 500 publications worldwide since launching News Showcase, a product that gives publishers control over how their content is presented on the platform. News Corp said in a statement that it would contribute content to News Showcase from publications including the Wall

Street Journal and The Times as part of its deal, in exchange for "significant payments" from Google.

But that doesn't mean the fight with Big Tech is over. News Corp CEO Robert Thomson said earlier this month that "new terms of trade will be introduced" in Australia "but that debate now extends across the globe."

"There is not a single serious digital regulator anywhere in the world who is not examining the opacity of algorithms, the integrity of personal data, the social value of professional journalism, and the dysfunctional digital ad market," he said.

Professor Charlie Beckett, the director of Polis, a media think tank at the London School of Economics, said that the danger with arrangements between tech companies and big publishers is that they come at the expense of smaller organizations that don't have the negotiating clout.

"So if you believe in a diverse, vibrant journalism industry, then this doesn't seem to be helping that," he told CNN Business.

"The real loss [to news organizations] has been the fact that advertisers much prefer advertising on Google and Facebook and other networks and are much less interested in advertising on newspaper websites," said Beckett. "That's where the big money has been lost and this is not going to replace that money."

Newsletter

Related Articles

KazPost
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
Europe is boiling: Extreme Weather Conditions Prevail Across the Continent
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
Historic Moment: Edgars Rinkevics, EU's First Openly Gay Head of State, Takes Office as Latvia's President
An Ominous Shift in Warfare: Western Powers Risk War Crimes and Violate International Norms with Cluster Bomb Supply to Ukraine
Bye bye democracy, human rights, freedom: French Cops Can Now Secretly Activate Phone Cameras, Microphones And GPS To Spy On Citizens
The Poor Man With Money, Mark Zuckerberg, Unveils Twitter Replica with Heavy-Handed Censorship: A New Low in Innovation?
The Double-Edged Sword of AI: AI is linked to layoffs in industry that created it
US Sanctions on China's Chip Industry Backfire, Prompting Self-Inflicted Blowback
Meta Copy Twitter with New App, Threads
The New French Revolution
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner
Corruption in the European Parliament - Business as usual
UK Crypto and Stablecoin Regulations Become Law as Royal Assent is Granted
Paris Suburb Grapples with Violence as Curfew Imposed: Saint-Denis Residents Express Dismay and Anger
A Delaware city wants to let businesses vote in its elections
Alef Aeronautics Achieves Historic Milestone with Flight Certification for World's First Flying Car
Google Blocked Access to Canadian News in Response to New Legislation
French Politicians Advocate for Pan-European Regulation on Social Media Influencers
×