Facebook blocks messages in Australia
In the dispute over a planned media law for digital platforms, the US social media giant Facebook blocked news content as well as weather and disaster warnings from authorities in Australia from Thursday. The background to this are the plans of the government in Canberra that Internet giants such as Google parent Alphabet and Facebook should pay local media companies if they distribute their content. The corporations do not consider this to be feasible.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the measures “as disappointing as we arrogant” on Thursday and said in a statement that Facebook had “unfriended” Australia. The law is expected to be passed by parliament in the coming days.
In a statement circulated on Wednesday, Facebook wrote that the proposed law profoundly misunderstood the relationship between the platforms and publishers who use them to share newsworthy content. “It now presents us with a tough choice: trying to obey a law that misunderstands the reality of this relationship or no longer allowing news content on our services in Australia. With a heavy heart, we chose the latter,” the US wrote -Companies.
Australian publishers benefit from sharing their posts on Facebook, the internet giant wrote. Facebook had already threatened to ban news in Australia from its service last August and last repeated this threat at a Senate hearing in January. At this hearing, Google threatened to shut down its search engine in Australia.
In the past few days, Google took the reins into their own hands and signed several preliminary contracts with local media. The company agreed among others with Rupert Murdochs News Corp on payments for journalistic content of the media group. The agreement runs for three years and plans to make “significant payments” to News Corp, said the company, which owns newspapers in Australia such as “The Australian”, “The Daily Telegraph” and “The Herald Sun”.
As a result of the measure, some Facebook pages of the Australian police, fire brigade and government agencies were also blocked on Wednesday, including those of the health authorities with important up-to-date information on the corona pandemic. Facebook later announced that this was not intended and that the pages would be restored.
“This is an alarming and dangerous development,” said human rights organization Human Rights Watch on Thursday. To cut off access to vital information for an entire country in the middle of the night is unscrupulous. The bushfire season is currently raging in Western Australia, and heavy rainfall is causing flooding in the east of the country.
