{"id":47554,"date":"2021-02-21T01:44:46","date_gmt":"2021-02-21T01:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=54977"},"modified":"2021-02-21T01:44:46","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T01:44:46","slug":"facebook-news-ban-turns-attention-to-tech-giants-impact-on-journalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/21\/facebook-news-ban-turns-attention-to-tech-giants-impact-on-journalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook news ban turns attention to tech giants\u2019 impact on journalism"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pf-content\"><p><em>By Kalinga Seneviratne in Sydney<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The tech juggernaut Facebook\u2019s shock decision to block all news feeds from Australian media outlets this week in response to a proposed new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.accc.gov.au\/focus-areas\/digital-platforms\/news-media-bargaining-code\">Media Bargaining law<\/a>, that will force social media giants to pay for news content that is posted on their platforms, has created fury among Australians.<\/p>\n<p>But it is also turning attention to the impact of Facebook &#8211; and Google &#8211; on Australian journalism.<\/p>\n<p>Facebook banned Australian users from accessing news in their feeds on the morning of Thursday, February 18, as the government pursues laws that would force it to pay publishers for journalism that appears in people\u2019s feeds.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/national\/programmes\/mediawatch\/audio\/2018784154\/facebook-backs-away-from-news-across-the-tasman\"><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> Facebook backs away from news across the Tasman &#8211; RNZ <em>Mediawatch<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2021\/02\/21\/facebooks-australia-ban-threatens-to-leave-pacific-without-key-news-source\/\">Facebook\u2019s Australia ban threatens to leave Pacific without key news source<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?s=News+Bargaining+law\">Other News Bargaining law stories<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The legislation was introduced to Parliament in Canberra in December 2020. The House of Representatives passed it earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p>The bill that has wide political support in Australia is now under review by a Senate committee before it is presented for a vote in the upper house.<\/p>\n<p>In a lengthy statement issued by Facebook on February 18, the company revealed that it would bar Australian news sites from sharing content on the platform.<\/p>\n<p>Within moments of the announcement being made public, Australian news organisations, media commentators, interest groups and local consumers of Facebook that runs into millions, began voicing their fury.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8216;Go directly to source&#8217;<\/strong><br \/>\nNational broadcaster ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) immediately posted a notice on their news pages on the website calling on Australians to \u201cgo directly to the source\u201d by downloading from their own news application.<\/p>\n<p>Facebook\u2019s head of policy for Asia-Pacific, Simon Milner was unrepentant during an interview on the ABC network, arguing that they disagree with the broad definition of news in the new legislation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the criticisms we had about the law that was passed by the House of Representatives [on February 16] is that the definition of news is incredibly broad and vague,\u201d he said<\/p>\n<p>Facebook has said earlier that the proposed laws fundamentally misunderstood the relationship between their platform and publishers who used it to share news content.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, Facebook has been arguing for a long time that they are a publisher that provides a free platform for news organisations.<\/p>\n<p>But many media organisations and scholars argue that they are bleeding out revenue from the Australian media running advertising on these pages, which otherwise used to go to the media companies and their platforms such as newspapers and TV stations.<\/p>\n<p>A first of its kind, the success or otherwise of the Australian legislation is closely watched by other countries, especially in Europe.<\/p>\n<p><strong>US government pressure<\/strong><br \/>\nInterestingly, according to an ABC report on January 18, the US government had tried to pressure the Australian government to drop the proposed legislation.<\/p>\n<p>According to the ABC, a document with the letterhead of the Executive Office of the President has said: \u201cThe US government is concerned that an attempt, through legislation, to regulate the competitive positions of specific players \u2026 to the clear detriment of two US firms may result in harmful outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Australian government, however, sees the new legislation as designed to ensure these media companies are fairly remunerated for the use of their content on search engines and social media platforms.<\/p>\n<p>Google has begun signing deals with publishers in response, but Facebook has chosen to follow through on its threat and remove news for Australian users.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview on ABC Radio on February 18, Glen Dyer of popular <em>Crikey!<\/em> media that uses Facebook extensively to reach their audiences described Facebook\u2019s behaviour as \u201cresembling China\u2019s (Community Party)\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He argued that in the past year China has been imposing trade restrictions literally overnight on spurious grounds inconveniencing Australians at the behest of China\u2019s leader, and Mark Zuckerberg is also behaving in a similar high-handed way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt [Facebook] has a management structure that is controlled by a small group headed by Mark Zuckerberg,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Boycott Facebook<\/strong><br \/>\n\u201cAustralian advertisers should boycott Facebook\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>However, Dyer added that they would not have the guts because \u201cmost of these Australian companies are controlled offshore and the local executives would not risk their bonuses\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, speaking on ABC TV\u2019s flagship current affairs programme <em>7.30 Report<\/em> on February 18, argued strongly for an across the board tax on advertising revenue designed in such a way that both local and foreign companies operating in Australia cannot avoid it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe real question is that the revenue model for media has moved into other platforms like Facebook and Google. There is less revenue support for journalism and that has been a worry for some time,\u201d said Turnbull, who was a merchant banker before moving into politics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGovernment will be better off imposing a tax on advertising revenue across the board \u2026. take that revenue from Facebook and Google and make the money available to support public interest journalism,\u201d he recommended.<\/p>\n<p>Turnbull believes that government has lost the plot because they are saying to companies like Facebook and Google, \u201cyou have to pay money to those [media companies] who put contents on your site [even though] you are not stealing it or breaching copyrights, you have to pay\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, he appealed to Australians to go directly to Australia media news platforms and applications \u2013 like that offered by the ABC \u2013 without using Facebook.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Digital threat to democracy<\/strong><br \/>\nChris Cooper, executive director of Reset Australia, a global initiative working to counter the digital threat to democracy has also condemned Facebook\u2019s action.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFacebook is telling Australians that rather than participate meaningfully in regulatory efforts, it would prefer to operate a platform in which real news has been abandoned or de-prioritised, leaving misinformation to fill the void,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n<p>Reset Australia had made a submission to the government during the legislation\u2019s drafting stage arguing that the true impact of the legislation should be changes to the news, media and journalism landscape in Australia, that should ensure promoting greater diversity and pluralism within the Australian media landscape.<\/p>\n<p>Cooper argues that Facebook does not care about Australian society nor the functioning of democracy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRegulation is an inconvenient impost on their immediate profits \u2013 and the hostility of their response overwhelmingly confirms regulation is needed,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg blasted Facebook\u2019s decision to block access to pages like 1800Respect, the WA Department of Fire and Emergency Services and the Bureau of Meteorology.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on ABC he said that this was done at a time that a bushfire emergency in Western Australia depended on this information, and also when Australia is about to roll out the covid-19 vaccines where people needed access to reliable information.<\/p>\n<p>Frydenberg noted that this heavy-handed action will damage its reputation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheir decision to block Australians\u2019 access to government sites \u2014 be they about support through the pandemic, mental health, emergency services, the Bureau of Meteorology \u2014 was completely unrelated to the media code, which is yet to pass through the Senate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat today\u2019s events do confirm for all Australians, is the immense market power of these digital giants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/us.sagepub.com\/en-us\/nam\/author\/kalinga-seneviratne\"><em>Kalinga Seneviratne<\/em><\/a> <em>is a media analyst and author. This article was first published on IDN-InDepth News and is republished with the permission of the author.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2021\/02\/21\/facebook-news-ban-turns-attention-to-tech-giants-impact-on-journalism\/\">Asia Pacific Report<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kalinga Seneviratne in Sydney The tech juggernaut Facebook\u2019s shock decision to block all news feeds from Australian media outlets this week in response to a proposed new Media Bargaining law, that will force social media giants to pay for news content that is posted on their platforms, has created fury among Australians. But it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,432,725,5,3139,365,6,94,1940,652,345,9322,9323,358,12,9324,1265,16,9325,1743,369],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47554"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47554"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57718,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47554\/revisions\/57718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}