By Mike Cherney
SYDNEY -- Lawmakers from the U.K. and Canada criticized Facebook
Inc.'s ban on Australian users sharing news articles, and they said
the tech giant could attract more scrutiny around the world as
authorities grow increasingly concerned about its market power.
Facebook removed news from its platform in Australia in response
to legislation that would effectively compel it to pay traditional
media companies for content. The Australian legislation, supported
by media companies including News Corp, owner of The Wall Street
Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co., has been widely watched
globally and could offer a model for other countries that want to
require big tech companies to pay publishers for their content.
Facebook previously warned that it could remove news if the
legislation progressed, but its announcement still caught many
Australians by surprise. Users in Australia woke up Thursday
morning to find that the Facebook pages of Australian and
international publishers appeared blank. Those who tried to post
news links got a message saying the post couldn't be shared. The
tech giant also removed the pages of some government agencies,
which it later said was inadvertent.
Facebook says the proposed law misunderstands the relationship
between publishers and tech companies, and that it had little
choice but to restrict news sharing rather than accept a law that
ignores reality. The company says that publishers benefit because
links on Facebook send users directly to news websites, and that
publishers willingly choose to post news on Facebook, unlike with
search engines, which take content from other websites.
In the U.K., Julian Knight, the lawmaker who chairs the digital,
culture, media and sport committee, tweeted that Facebook's move to
restrict news was deeply irresponsible. The news blackout also
called into question Facebook's commitment to be a good global
citizen, he said in the tweet.
"Australia is the canary in the coal mine now as far as
social-media legislation is concerned," he said.
In Canada, the country's heritage minister, Steven Guilbeault,
also called Facebook's actions irresponsible, and he said his
government would move forward on legislation to fairly govern the
relationship between news media and tech companies. Mr. Guilbeault
said he met last week with his Australian, Finnish, German and
French counterparts to work together on the issue.
"The more of us around the table adopting similar regulations,
the harder it will be for Facebook to continue such actions," he
said on his Facebook page. "There is strength in numbers."
In the U.S., Facebook is facing antitrust litigation and it has
been criticized in the past for being slow to remove misinformation
from its platform, particularly around the 2016 election. Rep.
David Cicilline, the chairman of the antitrust subcommittee in the
House, also criticized the news ban in Australia.
Facebook has said it recognizes news plays an important role in
a democracy, and it has been willing to pay for news in other
contexts. In 2019, it announced it would pay news organizations --
including the Journal -- to license their headlines and story
summaries for a news service. In response to questions for this
article, Facebook noted on Friday that it recently joined with news
organizations in the U.K. and launched Facebook News there last
month, a feature in its app that carries news from publishers.
"We have a commitment to investing in quality news, and that
hasn't changed," said Nicola Mendelsohn, a Facebook vice president
who covers Europe.
Media outlets in Australia contend that the tech companies
currently have no incentive to negotiate because Facebook and
Alphabet Inc.'s Google effectively have monopolies over social
media and search, respectively. The proposed law in Australia would
essentially require publishers and tech companies such as Facebook
and Google to negotiate, and submit to binding arbitration if they
can't reach a deal.
Google has also opposed the law and at one point threatened to
shut down its search engine in Australia. But Google has since
agreed to new deals to pay publishers for content, including News
Corp, which owns several big publications in Australia.
Others have raised concerns about the law. The Australian
Industry Group, which represents businesses across a variety of
sectors, said the law gives media outlets special treatment, and it
worried that Australian businesses could bear higher search and
marketing costs than competitors in other jurisdictions as a result
of the law. Tim Berners-Lee, a British internet pioneer, said the
law risks breaching a fundamental principle of the web by requiring
payment for linking content online.
Facebook's news blackout was criticized by Australian officials
and public-health experts, who pointed out that it could make it
more difficult for people to get information from reliable media
outlets just as Australia began rolling out its coronavirus
vaccine. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he wouldn't be
intimidated, and other officials said they remain committed to
passing the law.
"They may be changing the world, but that doesn't mean they run
it," Mr. Morrison said on his Facebook page, adding that an
increasing number of countries are concerned about the behavior of
big tech companies. Mr. Morrison said he discussed the issue with
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday and that he has also
talked about it in the past with leaders from the U.K., France and
Canada.
Australia's Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said Friday that
negotiations with Facebook were continuing. He said he talked to
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and that the two discussed
their remaining issues and agreed to try to work through them. They
planned to talk again over the weekend, Mr. Frydenberg said on
Twitter.
Mr. Frydenberg said the proposed law is already leveling the
playing field between tech giants and the news companies. He argued
that Google's recent deals wouldn't have happened without the
possibility of the law being enacted. The law has passed
Australia's lower chamber of Parliament, and the upper chamber is
expected to consider the matter next week.
"This was never meant to be easy," Mr. Frydenberg said in a
television interview Friday. "Otherwise other countries would have
moved a long time ago. We're trying to succeed here in Australia
where others have failed."
Peter Lewis, the director of the Australia Institute's Centre
for Responsible Technology, said that by inadvertently removing
pages from government agencies, unions and community groups,
Facebook demonstrated just how much control it has over what goes
on its platform -- a big concern for governments world-wide.
"It does feel like there is sea change coming," he said. "Two
decades of unregulated expansion of platform technology without
constraint is having negative consequences."
Write to Mike Cherney at mike.cherney@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 19, 2021 10:05 ET (15:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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