Fury as Facebook ‘unfriends’ Australia in surprise move
CANBERRA: In a surprise retaliatory move on Thursday, Facebook blocked Australians from sharing news stories, escalating a fight with the government over whether powerful tech companies should have to pay news organisations for content.
Australia’s government condemned the step, which also blocked some government communications, including messages about emergency services, and some commercial pages.
The digital plaforms fear that what’s happening in Australia will become an expensive precedent for other countries as governments revamp laws to catch up with the fast changing digital world.
Facebook acted ater the House of Representatives passed legislation that would make it and Google pay for Australian journalism, said Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. He said he was given no warning before Facebook acted. The legislation must be passed by the Senate to become law.
Australian news organisations could not post stories and people who tried to share existing news stories got notifications saying they were blocked from doing so.
“This post can’t be shared,” the website said.
“In response to Australian government legislation, Facebook restricts the posting of news links and all posts from news Pages in Australia. Globally, the posting and sharing of news links from Australian publications is restricted.”
The legislation mentioned by the notice has not yet been enacted.
“Facebook’s actions were unnecessary, they were heavy- handed and they will damage its reputation here in Australia,” Frydenberg said.
Prime Minister Scot Morrison lashed out on his own Facebook page.
“Facebook’s actions to unfriend Australia today, cuting off essential information services on health and emergency services, were as arrogant as they were disappointing,” Morrison posted.
“These actions will only confirm the concerns that an increasing number of countries are expressing about the behaviour of Bigtech companies who think they are bigger than governments and that the rules should not apply to them. They may be changing the world, but that doesn’t mean they run it,” he added.
“We will not be intimidated by Bigtech seeking to pressure our Parliament.”
Facebook said the proposed Australian law “fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our plaform and publishers who use it.”