As Australia takes on Facebook, can it get the rest of the world on its side?
As Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg held talks with the Australian government on Friday over a law that would force the social media giant to pay for content, Prime Minister Scott Morrison suggested there could be international support for Canberra's efforts to regulate big tech and support journalism.
Morrison said he had raised the legislation - which could become law as early as next week after a Senate debate that begins on Monday - in a phone call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He added that he had also spoken with his counterparts in France and Canada to seek their support for plans to make technology giants Google and Facebook pay media outlets, hit hard by plummeting advertising revenues, for the news shared on their platforms.
"There is a lot of world interest in what Australia is doing," Morrison said on Friday, after Facebook dramatically blocked Australian users from viewing and sharing news content on its site, and prevented Australian publishers' pages from being viewed by global users.
Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.
Dr Belinda Barnet, senior lecturer in media at Swinburne University in Melbourne, said Australia's position reflected a growing acknowledgement around the world that platforms such as Facebook were in fact publishers, which was "the very last thing they want to admit".
Tai Neilson, media lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, said a turning point had been reached in attitudes about the need to regulate big tech.
"The problems of governing tech giants like Facebook and Google are not particular to Australia, they are global," he said. "That's why much of the world is watching the current battle between the Australian government and Facebook.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg held talks with the Australian government on Friday. Photo: AP alt=Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg held talks with the Australian government on Friday. Photo: AP
"Something needs to be done to address the Google-Facebook monopoly and to place democratic constraints on the operation of these corporations. Something needs to be done to support Australian journalism, which has been placed under increasing financial pressure, in part, by these companies."
Jaspreet Bindra, founder of New Delhi-based advisory Digital Matters, said he expected Australia to gain strong international backing "primarily because all governments, including India, are looking to rein in the big platforms, which have emerged almost as a 'sovereign threat' to them".
"I think that the government is keenly watching what Australia does, I also think it is watching China too, and how their model has kept the big guys totally out and their own home-grown tech firms as leaders," he said.
"I think that in certain quarters, this is vastly - but secretly - admired. Prime Minister Modi's vision of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat', or 'self-reliant India', resonates with this approach. As a case in point, a bunch of ministers and politicians have recently moved to Koo, a small local alternative to Twitter."
Bindra cautioned, however, that the growing international backlash against big tech was motivated by political reasons on top of the government's concern with the public good.
"In India, the government has been taking Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and others to court or summoning them to parliament for the last couple of years," he said. "The interventions to take down Twitter handles and comments are very frequent; I believe India leads in this worldwide."
'HIGHLY IRRESPONSIBLE'
Facebook's Thursday move to block Australian users from posting links to news articles and bar Australian media outlets from sharing content also led to the blocking of non-news pages including those of health departments, fire and rescue services, charities and advocacy organisations, which the tech giant later said was a mistake stemming from it adopting a "broad definition" of the proposed legislation.
Australian newspapers carry front-page headlines about Facebook's move to block media content. Photo: AP alt=Australian newspapers carry front-page headlines about Facebook's move to block media content. Photo: AP
Canadian heritage minister Steven Guilbeault slammed the move as "highly irresponsible" and vowed to push ahead with plans for legislation similar to that being debated in Australia. He noted he had recently spoken with his French, Australian, German and Finnish counterparts about cooperating to ensure media companies were fairly compensated for the use of their content.
"I suspect that soon we will have five, 10, 15 countries adopting similar rules ... is Facebook going to cut ties with Germany, with France?" he said.
Google, which is also opposed to the legislation, has in recent days signed multimillion-dollar deals with major Australian publishers, including Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, that will see the tech giant pay for content featured on its new product News Showcase.
The deals have been seen as an effort to strike a compromise under which the new media laws would only apply to content displayed in search results if the government later decided tech companies were not negotiating fairly with publishers.
Bruce Haigh, a former Australian diplomat turned political commentator, expressed scepticism about the legislation, suggesting it was mostly for the benefit of News Corp, the country's largest newspaper publisher.
"Morrison is reacting to pressure from Murdoch," Haigh said, adding that he believed Australia would fail to get much international support "because most are aware of what is driving this".
Facebook has argued that Australia's proposed law "fundamentally misunderstands" the relationship between the platform and publishers, and that the company has actually boosted media outlets' bottom lines by last year generating 5.1 billion free referrals worth an estimated A$407 million (US$315.8 million).
Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison says there is "a lot of world interest" in what Australia is doing. Photo: AAP alt=Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison says there is "a lot of world interest" in what Australia is doing. Photo: AAP
"For Facebook, the business gain from news is minimal," William Easton, managing director of Facebook's Australia and New Zealand operations, said in a blog post explaining the decision to restrict services in Australia.
"News makes up less than 4 per cent of the content people see in their [Facebook] news feed. Journalism is important to a democratic society, which is why we build dedicated, free tools to support news organisations around the world in innovating their content for online audiences."
Some tech commentators have sympathised with Facebook's stance.
In a post published yesterday on Techdirt, the blog's founder Mike Masnick said Australia's proposal amounted to a "link tax" that demanded payment for traffic.
"This is like saying that not only should NBC have to run an advertisement for Techdirt, but it should have to pay me for it," Masnick said. "If that seems totally nonsensical, that's because it is. The link tax makes no sense."
Trevor Long, a Sydney-based tech commentator, said while Australia had committed itself to an "uphill battle", the government appeared determined to see it through.
"Facebook is big, and powerful. However, our government seems set on its plan, and while there may be adjustments to our media bargaining code, it will pass through parliament and Facebook will be required to negotiate with news media, or maintain this news ban on its platform," he said.
"The action by Facebook is a turning point because it shows clearly they mean what they say with their threats to withdraw news, but also it has shown all Australians the immense influence Facebook has, and that's not sitting well with a lot of people."
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2021. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
