Facebook is banning Australians from sharing news links in response to a proposed law that would force the company to pay for news.
If you are an Australian Facebook user who likes to share news on your profile or a Page, you will be prevented from posting the news on the popular social media platform, Facebook.
Australia is about to pass a law called the mandatory bargaining code for news media and digital platforms, which would force Facebook and Google to pay publishers if they host their content. The law is a response to years-long complaints from news organizations around the world about the role Google, Facebook and its massive digital advertising business have played in the decline of journalism and the destruction of its business model in the internet age. The two companies responded in different ways:
Google makes deals with Australian news publishers.
Facebook is cutting it all off.
Based on the reasoning that the law would not apply to it as long as news links could not be shared on its platform, Facebook prohibited all users from sharing links to Australian news sources; It also prevented Australian publication pages from hosting any of their own content at all, and Australian users from sharing any news links whatsoever, whether Australian or international.
It also appears that Facebook is banning anything believed to be an Australian news source which currently includes several sites that are certainly not news outlets. There have been reports of restricting government pages, for example, as well as Bike Trails.
However, the excessive ban was apparently deliberate and perhaps slightly punitive.
"Because the law does not provide clear guidance on defining news content, we have taken a broad definition in order to respect the law as it stands," Facebook said. "However, we will retrieve any unintentionally affected pages."
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Facebook's move would make his government more determined to pass the law and might encourage some other governments to do something similar.
"Facebook's actions to unfriend Australia today, cutting basic information services around the health and emergency services, were as arrogant as they were disappointing," Morrison wrote in a Facebook post. "These actions will only confirm the concerns that an increasing number of countries are expressing about the behavior of BigTech companies that they believe are bigger than governments and that the rules should not apply to them."
He added, "We will not be afraid of BigTech seeking to put pressure on our parliament because it is voting on the important Media Bargaining Act."
Facebook hates the law but Google is learning (and paying) to live with it
The proposed law that appears likely to be passed states that digital platforms such as Facebook and Google must pay news organizations if their content is shown on those platforms, such as in Google search results or Facebook posts.
Google and Facebook are the only two companies that will be subject to the law currently, but it could also apply to any other digital platforms designated by the government. Platforms and publishers either have to reach a payment agreement, or go before a referee who will decide a fair price for them to pay, or face heavy penalties.
Google and Facebook, which dominate the digital advertising business that pays them billions while news organizations go bankrupt, have vehemently opposed the law. Over the past several months, both have threatened to withdraw their services from the Australians if it passes.
In the end, Google blinks. The search giant has already begun striking pay deals with Australian publications. On Wednesday, it announced a deal with News Corp. Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch, Australia's ultra-rich and powerful news tycoon and his native son, has been very vocal about his desire for a law that forces digital platforms to pay for his posts, and may have influenced the country's decision to go ahead with the law.
News Corp now has a multi-year deal with Google. Terms were not disclosed, but the New York Times reported that they were worth tens of millions of dollars. Google has also made a deal with Australian company Seven West Media and agreed to enter into licensing deals with French publications as France considers similar law.
It is clear that Facebook has taken a different path. If Australians can't share news links, and Australian news organizations can't publish their content, Facebook believes Australia's law won't apply to it, after all, there's nothing to pay for media companies. But there is no law yet.
Facebook cut Australian news posts before it had to, giving them, their government and their readers a taste of what would happen if the media law passed. Facebook may hope that a platform preview without Australian news will make lawmakers more amenable to passing a version of the law that Facebook favors.
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