{"id":49880,"date":"2021-02-22T19:57:37","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T19:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=165532"},"modified":"2021-02-22T19:57:37","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T19:57:37","slug":"rsf-condemns-facebook-news-ban-in-australia-block-reported-to-be-lifted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/22\/rsf-condemns-facebook-news-ban-in-australia-block-reported-to-be-lifted\/","title":{"rendered":"RSF condemns Facebook news ban in Australia \u2013 block reported to be lifted"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>The Australian news blackout by Facebook has been a “deliberate” bid since February 17 to \u201crestrict publishers and people in Australia from sharing or viewing Australian and international news content”. Image: RSF<\/div>\n
\n

Asia Pacific Report<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned Facebook for carrying out its threat to block the sharing of its journalistic news content in Australia in retaliation to the federal government\u2019s plan to make platforms pay media outlets.<\/p>\n

The ban impacts on the reliability and pluralism of the information available on this social media platform, said the Paris-based global media watchdog.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo posts yet\u201d is the message that the Facebook pages of the Australian media have been showing since February 17, says RSF in a statement.<\/p>\n

This blackout is deliberate. Facebook announced<\/a> on February 17 that it would \u201crestrict publishers and people in Australia from sharing or viewing Australian and international news content.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision was taken in reaction to the Australian government\u2019s proposed News Media Bargaining Code<\/a>, under which platforms such as Facebook and Google would have to pay Australian media outlets for the content they display.<\/p>\n

Facebook\u2019s response, called the \u201cnuclear option\u201d by The Australian<\/em><\/a> daily newspaper, is radical.<\/p>\n

Australian media can no longer share or post content on their Facebook pages, while users in Australia can no longer see or share links to news on the platform, whether Australian or international news.<\/p>\n

Facebook \u2018abusing dominant position\u2019<\/strong>
\u201c<\/em>Facebook is abusing its dominant position to defend its economic interests at the expense of online news reliability and pluralism,\u201d said Iris de Villars, the head of RSF\u2019s Tech Desk.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of the proposed law being discussed, these restrictions affect the ability of Australian citizens to access reliable and independent information on this platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge Facebook to reverse this decision, which totally contradicts its pledges to combat disinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

To implement these restrictions, Facebook has been using machine-learning tools to identify news content publishers but this has had the collateral effect of blocking other kinds of content<\/a>, including the pages of several NGOs such as RSF, public health bodies, governmental institutions and even entities that handle emergencies.<\/p>\n

Facebook has not as yet responded to RSF\u2019s questions.<\/p>\n

Asia Pacific Report and Pacific Media Watch collaborate with Reporters Without Borders.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Print<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Australian news blackout by Facebook has been a \u201cdeliberate\u201d bid since February 17 to \u201crestrict publishers and people in Australia from sharing or viewing Australian and international\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,92,432,725,5,365,728,6,94,1940,9704,9705,345,4,9706,358,12,14,798,799,16,9707,8296],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49880"}],"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=49880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49881,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49880\/revisions\/49881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}