Facebook messages in Australia are getting darker as content escalates
Australians woke up to a blank newsfeed on their Facebook Inc page on Thursday after the social media giant shockingly blocked all media content and dramatically escalated a dispute with the government over content payments.
The move was quickly criticized by news producers, politicians and human rights defenders, especially after it became clear that official health pages, safety alerts and social media had been removed from the site along with the news.
"Facebook is wrong, Facebook's actions are unnecessary, serious and will damage its reputation in Australia," cashier Josh Friedenberg told a news conference.
Friedenberg said Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg did not warn about suspending the news as the couple spoke over the weekend about an upcoming law that would force Facebook and search engine giant Google to pay local content publishers.
The two men had a follow-up conversation Thursday morning that was "constructive," Friedenberg said, adding that they were discussing what he called "different interpretations" of how the new media negotiation code works.
Facebook's drastic move is a split from Google, which is owned by Alphabet Inc, after initially cooperating on a campaign against the law. Both had threatened to cancel services in Australia, but Google has entered into preventive deals with many outlets in the last few days.
News Corp. Rupert Murdoch recently announced a deal that will receive a "substantial payment" from Google in exchange for providing content for his News Showcase account to search engines.
Google declined to comment on Facebook's decision on Thursday.
Under Australian law, Facebook and Google must enter into commercial deals with news outlets whose links drive traffic to their platforms, or undergo enforced arbitration to negotiate prices.
Facebook said in a statement that the law, which parliament hopes to pass within a few days, "basically fails to understand the relationship between itself and the editor and faces a clear choice of trying to comply with or ban content news." . "
EMPTY PAGE
The changes made by Facebook removed clean pages run by information bureaus and removed posts from individual users exchanging Australian news three days before the country launched a national vaccination program to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Lisa Davis, editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, a newspaper of Nine Entertainment Co Ltd, wrote on Twitter: "Facebook has exponentially increased the likelihood of misinformation, dangerous radicalism and conspiracy theories on its platform."
The Facebook pages of Nine and News Corp, which together dominate the nation's newspaper market, and the government-funded Australian Broadcasting Corp, which acts as the main source of information during natural disasters, are blank.
It also affected several major government accounts, including those offering advice on the coronavirus pandemic and the risk of bushfires in the height of summer, as well as dozens of accounts for charities and NGOs.
"This is unacceptable," wrote Brianna Casey, CEO of the charity Foodbank, on Twitter.
"Demand for food aid has never been higher than during this pandemic, and one of our main communication tools to connect people with information and advice about #foodrelief is no longer available. Important hours when you don't have food. DISTRIBUTE THIS!" "
SOME PAGES RESTORED
By afternoon, many government-sponsored Facebook pages had been restored, but several charity sites and all media sites remained dark, including international sites such as the New York Times, the BBC and the Wall Street Journal News Corp.
Facebook representatives in Australia did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the situation. The Australian Facebook page was closed for some time before it was restored.
"This is a worrying and dangerous turnaround," Human Rights Watch said in a statement. "It is immoral to interfere with access to vital information for the entire country at night."
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said Facebook had sent a message to Australia that "you will not find any content on our platform that comes from organizations that employ professional journalists and have editorial policies that include a fact-checking process."
Health Secretary Greg Hunt said Facebook pages of various community health projects had been shut down and "the fact that the Child Cancer Project may be affected is shameful".
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