Everything You Need To Know About The Facebook-Australian Government Conflict Simplified For You

Facebook – an Instagram for people over 25.

Having a Facebook account is a bit like having a butthole; if you don’t have one, people will assume there’s something wrong with you.

For many people, Facebook is where they get their news from, whether it’s from friends sharing links to articles or friends sharing angry, misinformed posts about articles they read.

At the moment, the tech giant has over 2.7 billion monthly active users, making it the biggest social network worldwide.

25 million of those users, however, might soon have a very different experience on the platform.

On Tuesday (1 Sept),  Facebook threatened to stop Australians sharing news content on Facebook and Google, after the Australian government proposed a law to make the social media giant pay local media outlets for their content.

This means that if you live in Australia and you come across an article of a porcupine saving a drowning puppy, you won’t be able to share it on Facebook or Instagram.

Tensions between the two are at an all-time high, and neither side intends to make concessions.

So, where did it all start?

Loss of Advertising Revenue 

As you’re probably aware, Facebook and Google are full of news, whether they’re headlines or snippets.

I mean, Google has literally become a verb, meaning to “search for information about someone or something on the Internet using the search engine Google.”

Both tech giants, of course, make money when their users share news stories on their platforms because they get advertising revenue.

However, they aren’t compensating the news outlets for the use of their content, something that media companies have long complained about.

It’d be a bit like your boss sharing your blog posts on his website for clicks and gaining advertising revenue, without compensating you for it.

These complaints by local news publishers prompted an 18-month inquiry into the power of digital platforms by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, according to Wired.

It found that while Facebook received little advertising revenue from sharing news headlines and snippets on their platforms, it still greatly benefited them.

One-third of Facebook users, for instance, reportedly use the site to access news.

News outlets also benefit from this arrangement, yes, but the problem was that they couldn’t request Facebook or Google to pay for their content because they possessed little bargaining power.

This loss of advertising revenue has hit news outlets even harder during the Covid-19 pandemic due to its economic impact.

Back in May, for example, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation announced plans to cut jobs and close or stop printing over 100 local and regional newspapers in Australia, reported Yahoo Finance.

Moreover, more than 200 newsrooms across Australia have shuttered temporarily, closed down permanently, or reduced its service since Jan 2019, according to CNN.

Things might soon change, however.

A Proposed Law

In July, the Australian government proposed new rules that would force Facebook and Google to pay local media organizations for the use of their news content.

This means that before headlines and snippets of their news stories can appear on either platform, both Facebook and Google would have to negotiate compensation with the news publishers of those stories.

Both sides would have to involve an independent arbitrator if they can’t reach an agreement on compensation.

This new law, if passed, will finally give local news outlets a little bargaining power.

“(Facebook and Google) will no longer be able to use their power to walk away from negotiations with news creators” said News Corporation Australia executive chair Michael Miller.

Australia isn’t the only country that’s forced companies like Google and Facebook to pay media companies for republishing their news.

In 2014, the Spanish government introduced a law that required publishers to charge Google for their headlines and snippets of their stories that appeared on Google News.

And last year, France did the same thing.

Google did not react kindly to these laws, to say the least.

According to Wired, they removed the Google News service from Spain and took local publishers off its news service globally.

As for France, Google removed snippets of news from French publishers from its search results and did not pay for links.

Now that Australia has proposed a similar law against Facebook and Google, Facebook has resorted to threatening the Australian government.

Will Block News Content On its Sites

On Tuesday (1 Sep), Facebook threatened to prevent users in Australia from sharing news content on Facebook and Instagram if the proposed law passes.

“This is not our first choice — it is our last,” said Will Easton, managing director of Facebook Australia and New Zealand.

“But it is the only way to protect against an outcome that defies logic and will hurt, not help, the long-term vibrancy of Australia’s news and media sector.”

If Facebook follows through on its threat, users in Australia will not be able to share local and international news on Facebook and Instagram.

The Australian government isn’t budging, however.

“We don’t respond to coercion or heavy-handed threats wherever they come from,” Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said.

Bridget Fair, chief executive of Free TV Australia, said the proposed law was the “only reasonable way to even up the bargaining power between Facebook, Google and Australian News Media Businesses”.

At this point, even though the proposed law had gone through a public consultation phase last month, it is still a draft law.

Before it can be passed, it will need to be approved by lawmakers in parliament.

With neither side backing down, netizens can be assured that this drama will have several sequels in the near future.

This is part of Goody Feed’s series of explainer articles where the cats in the office try to simplify and consolidate major happenings both overseas and locally for you. Hopefully, we’ve succeeded with this one but as you already know, with cats, it’s impossible to tell.

Meanwhile, here’s another one that’s closer to the heart: