Facebook blocks news in Australia, comes under harsh criticism

Facebook Inc. has come under harsh criticism after the social media giant banned all Australian news from its website.

On Wednesday, Facebook said it was restricting publishers and users in Australia from sharing or viewing Australian and international news content in response to the federal government's proposed legislation to create a news media bargaining code.

The Australian parliament is poised to pass a new media bill that will require online platforms like Google and Facebook to pay news outlets for displaying and linking to their content.

"The proposed law fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content," Facebook said on Wednesday.

"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. With a heavy heart, we are choosing the latter."

Besides pages run by news outlets, several government-backed Australian accounts were also wiped clean by the company on Thursday morning.

The government pages include those providing updates on the coronavirus pandemic and bushfire threats among other important issues.

Facebook’s move was swiftly slammed by the Australian government as well as news producers, politicians and human rights advocates.

“Facebook was wrong. Facebook’s actions were unnecessary. They were heavy-handed and they will damage its reputation here in Australia,” Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Thursday.

“Their decision to block Australians’ access to government sites — be they about support through the pandemic, mental health, emergency services, the Bureau of Meteorology — were completely unrelated to the media code, which is yet to pass through the Senate,” he said.

Australia’s Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said Facebook’s message to Australians is that “you will not find content on our platform which comes from an organization which employs professional journalists, which has editorial policies, which has fact-checking processes”.

Health Minister Greg Hunt described the move as “an assault on a sovereign nation” and “an utter abuse of big technology’s market power”.

As Google eyes Australia exit, Microsoft talks Bing with PM

Software giant Microsoft Corp is confident its search product Bing can fill the gap in Australia if Google pulls its search over required payments to media outlets, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday.

Meanwhile, Lisa Davies, editor of daily The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, owned by Nine Entertainment Co Ltd, said on Tweeter, that “Facebook has exponentially increased the opportunity for misinformation, dangerous radicalism and conspiracy theories to abound on its platform.”

Although some government-backed Facebook pages were restored, several charity pages and all media sites, including those of international outlets like the New York Times, the BBC, News Corp’s Wall Street Journal and Reuters, remained dark.

Facebook’s own page was down for several hours in Australia before it was restored.

Brianna Casey, chief executive of hunger relief charity Foodbank, also reacted to the move, saying on Tweeter, “Demand for food relief has never been higher than during this pandemic, and one of our primary comms tools to help connect people with #foodrelief info & advice is now unavailable.”

Human Rights Watch said in a statement, “Cutting off access to vital information to an entire country in the dead of the night is unconscionable.”

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