By Niru Kalyanaraman
What is going on?
Australia and Facebook recently had a dispute, blocking Australian citizens from accessing all news sources on Facebook around the 17th of February. Proposed laws by the Australian government made Google and Facebook pay for journalism (i.e. the news media bargaining code). In addition to this, the law would penalise Facebook if it allowed news from publishers which were not part of the code to be accessed on their website whilst blocking others who were also part of the code. This effectively resulted in the blockage of all news content.
Facebook's Side of the Story
Facebook believed that it was more of an undue advantage for news companies, than Facebook itself. The firm's head in Australia and New Zealand, Will Easton, mentioned in a blog post that new content makes up less than 4% of the aggregate content people see on their news feeds. On the other hand, however, Facebook did account for the massive viewership of 5.1 billion on Australian news websites in 2020 alone.
Google Joins the Party
Facebook and Google have one thing in common in this situation; both argued that the law "fundamentally" misunderstood the internet's workings. Google has fallen privy to the news code, forcing them to commit millions of dollars in local digital content. Both tech giants (Google and Facebook) lobbied the Australian government to amend the legislation while pursuing contracts with local news sources such as Mr Murdoch's News Corp to access the content across its media empire. As Google has threatened to remove its search engine from Australia (if the legislation passes), Google has made deals with multiple Australian media outlets, including Nine entertainment.
Google has been able to gain the support of firms like News Corp through "significant payments. Nevertheless, it is still unclear what the steps will entail.
Power, Pride and Forsaken Claims
On Tuesday the 23rd of February, Facebook returned news to Australian users after an eight-day blackout. Facebook stated that it 'had been reassured by recent discussions with the government".
Campbell Brown, vice president of global news partnerships at Facebook, mentioned that in the future, "the government has clarified we will retain the ability to decide if news appears on Facebook so that we won't automatically be subject to forced negotiation". However, critics are perplexed about this contradictory move and call this to be undemocratic as Facebook's temporary shutdown of credible news access has resulted in a spike in fake news.
Food for Thought
Some commentators have said that this ordeal has showcased how legalities have the power to undermine the intrinsic web principle of free connection. These tech corporations' commercial restriction opens the question of what web principles can be regulated if the web is an ocean home to a plethora of information, both malignant and benign. Through this situation, it appears that the Australian government exposed the inadequacies of such legislation. One could derive this conclusion as it adequately highlights that people's undesirable outcomes will override the moral motive for access to credible news due to the problematic choices firms such as Facebook take. It also brings an important question about how the conflicted world of the internet can sustainably integrate journalism. However, the proof still lies in the puffing that the monopolisation of Facebook will decrease the incentive for it to make news more readily accessible as 4 out of 5 of the most downloaded news apps were owned and controlled by them.
Facebook has many avenues - don't expect much from them.
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