Facebook proves it is `dangerously unregulated'

If you weren't worried about the hoodies who run Silicon Valley, you should be now. A showdown is underway between America's tech giants and Australia just because it's trying to get them to pay for copyrighted content they have stolen for decades from traditional media companies.

On Jan. 17, in protest against legislation, Facebook turned off pages belonging to media outlets in Australia, and blocked anyone in the country from posting a link to a news article. Pages for politicians, charities and emergency services departments were also disabled. The company acknowledged some sites had been “inadvertently impacted” and would be restored.

That day, Google announced its approach to derail the new law — an Australian and international revenue sharing deal with News Corp., owned by Australian tycoon Rupert Murdoch, the first of many it hopes to negotiate with the world's media. But it warned that if the legislation passes, it too will shut down its entire search service.

The bullying has backfired already. Representative David Cicilline, chair of the U.S. House antitrust subcommittee, tweeted out immediately: “If it is not already clear, Facebook is not compatible with democracy. Threatening to bring an entire country to its knees to agree to Facebook's terms is the ultimate admission of monopoly power.”

Together, Google and Facebook provide “news” for half of all Australians, according to the country's competition watchdog. Facebook's blackout affects 17 million and also erects a wall around Australia's media companies.

“Facebook's actions to `unfriend' Australia today, cutting off essential information services on health and emergency services, were as arrogant as they were disappointing,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, adding that “bullying” won't stop the legislation.

“They may be changing the world,” he said, “but that doesn't mean they should run it. I am in regular contact with the leaders of other nations on these issues. We simply won't be intimidated, just as we weren't when Amazon threatened to leave the country and when Australia drew other nations together to combat the publishing of terrorist content on social media platforms.”

The carnage created here by these companies is devastating and yet Ottawa remains on the sidelines, dithering as usual about what to do. In October, News Media Canada, a consortium that includes most Canadian publishers, released a report that 250 Canadian papers have shut down, leaving only 75 dailies and several hundred weeklies, monthlies and magazines. Between 2014 and 2019, newspaper revenues declined by 43 per cent, while Google's increased by 113 per cent and Facebook's by 387 per cent. Another report stated that Google and Facebook control 80 per cent of the online ad market in Canada and the companies have kept newspapers and networks at bay in terms of revenue sharing.

In October, the United States Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google's parent company, Alphabet, for anticompetitive behaviour in its search and advertising businesses. The European Union, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and various state attorneys have sued, alleging that its search engine and digital advertising businesses operate as illegal monopolies. Facebook also has been sued by the FTC and states' attorneys general.

Bloomberg wrote: “Facebook's algorithmic ambush switched off the main news source for almost one in five Australians. It also disabled — accidentally, the company said — a raft of government Facebook pages carrying public health advice on the coronavirus, warnings from the weather bureau and even the site of a children's hospital.”

The time is now to deal with these high-handed giants.

As a professor said: “The Australian government can now argue that this company is dangerously under-regulated.” So can every other country on earth.