Clegg: Facebook right to refuse to fund news
Ex-deputy PM defends Australian blackout by claiming company is being pushed to pay ‘subsidies’
Forcing Facebook to pay for news is like “forcing car makers to fund radio stations”, Sir Nick Clegg has claimed, in defence of the network’s decision to block content from Australia’s news publishers. The former Lib Dem leader, now Facebook’s vice-president of global affairs, defended the blackout, which was revoked amid a global backlash on Tuesday, after the Australian government agreed to compromise on proposals to make tech giants pay to show news content.
SIR NICK CLEGG has claimed that forcing Facebook to pay for news is like “forcing car makers to fund radio stations”, in a bizarre defence of the tech giant’s decision to block content from Australia’s news publishers.
The former leader of the Liberal Democrats, now Facebook’s vice-president of global affairs, defended the blackout, which was revoked amid a global backlash on Tuesday.
The row broke out after Australian politicians prepared to introduce rules that would make tech giants pay to show links to news stories.
Sir Nick said the rules were “like forcing car makers to fund radio stations because people might listen to them in the car – and letting the stations set the price”.
In a blog post titled: “The real story of what happened with news on Facebook in Australia”, Sir Nick said the Australian proposals were an attempt at “camouflaging a bid for cash subsidies” by news groups.
Facebook eventually reached a deal with Australia that will see it restore online news posts after the government agreed to a compromise under its new media bargaining laws, by giving technology companies more time to strike deals with publishers before they are forced into mandatory arbitration.
Regulators and politicians have rejected the arguments put forward by the former deputy prime minister.
Facebook’s news ban was sharply criticised after it also shut down public information and charity websites warning of the risks of coronavirus.
Sir Nick admitted that the company had “over-enforced” its ban, but said it planned to invest $1billion (£710million) in news over the next three years, matching Google’s spending plans.
Andrea Coscelli, the head of the UK’S Competition and Markets Authority, dismissed the line of argument comparing Facebook’s provision of news to cars and radios.
He told the BBC this week: “We are dealing with news, we are dealing with democracy and we are dealing with fake news. It is a different example.”
Damian Collins, the Conservative MP and former chairman of the digital select committee, said Sir Nick was “making out that Facebook is doing the news industry a favour”.
“The truth is that along with Google, the company controls 80pc of the advertising market in Australia and newspaper advertising revenues in that country have fallen by over 50pc since 2006. This has been responsible for news organisations laying off journalists, cutting back on investigations or closing down,” he added. Jamie Stone, the Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, said: “I’m glad Mr Clegg acknowledged the importance of not punishing Facebook users for the sake of a company’s spat with a democratic state.”
Sir Nick’s defence comes as Facebook faces renewed calls to be broken up.
Stephen Scheeler, Facebook’s former head of Australia, told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: “The scale, size and influence of these platforms, particularly on our minds, our brains, and all the things that we do as citizens, as consumers, are just so powerful. Leaving them in the hands of a few, very closely controlled companies like Facebook is the recipe for disaster.”
Australia’s amended legislation is expected to pass the senate this week.
Yesterday, Campbell Brown, Facebook’s vice-president of news partnerships, said the company had retained the ability to decide whether or not news appeared on its social network.