Sydney (AFP)

Facebook threatened on Tuesday to prevent users and Australian media from sharing articles if a bill was passed to force digital giants to pay for content provided by news outlets.

Australians would no longer have the right to relay national or international information on Facebook or Instagram, said the American firm, affirming that this decision is "the only way to protect against a consequence which defies all logic".

Australian Treasury Secretary Josh Frydenbergs immediately dismissed the "heavy threats" posed by Facebook, even speaking of "coercion".

Rod Sims, the director of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) who drafted the bill, called the threat "untimely and ill-conceived."

- Code of conduct -

Canberra unveiled at the end of July a draft "binding code of conduct" which would oblige the giants which dominate the Internet, foremost among which Google and Facebook, to pay Australian media, in great financial difficulty, for their content.

This code provides for the transparency of the algorithms used to work out the order of appearance of the content as well as penalties reaching several million euros in the event of infringement.

This proposed law "ignores the dynamics of the internet and will cause damage to media outlets that the government is trying to protect," said Will Easton, chief executive of Facebook in the region.

"Most confusing is that this would force Facebook to pay news groups for the content they voluntarily place on our platforms and at a price that ignores the financial value we bring them," he lamented in a statement.

He also accused the ACCC of having "ignored important facts" during the consultation process which ended on Monday.

"The ACCC assumes that it is Facebook that benefits the most from its relationship with press groups when in reality it is the other way around," he said.

"The news is a fraction of what people see on their news feed and it is not a major source of income for us," said Easton.

- "Facebook News" -

He also indicated that the firm had prepared the launch in Australia of "Facebook News", a news feed fed by professional journalists.

"Instead, we are given the choice between withdrawing the information completely or accepting a system where press groups can charge us for as much content as they want at a price without specific limits," he said. added.

On Tuesday, Facebook informed Australian users of a change to these terms of service effective October 1 that will allow it to remove or withdraw access to content "if necessary to avoid or mitigate the consequences legal or regulatory ".

Google has also counterattacked by creating "pop-ups" on search engines claiming "that the way Australians use Google is under threat" and by prompting "youtubers" around the world to complain to the Australian authorities.

This bill, which is expected to be passed this year, initially targets the two richest and most powerful tech firms, Facebook and Google, but could in the long run apply to any digital platform.

This initiative is being followed closely around the world at a time when the media are suffering in a digital economy where advertising revenues are increasingly captured by the giants of the web.

© 2020 AFP