Facebook challenges Australia by blocking news content
Facebook's blockade of information sharing in Australia on February 18, 2021 affected health services in areas in the midst of a fire emergency.
AP - Richard Drew
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Since Thursday morning February 18, no news content is visible on Facebook in Australia.
The social network announced that it was a retaliatory measure.
The Australian Parliament is currently examining a bill that should force GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple) to pay newspaper companies for the content they broadcast on their platforms.
This decision of the American firm is unanimously denounced in Australia.
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The threat is now a reality.
Facebook has turned off the news tap on its social network in Australia, starting a showdown with the government which wants to distribute online advertising revenues more equitably between GAFA and the media, reports our correspondent in Sydney,
Gregory Plesse
.
A dangerous position but also irresponsible according to Marcus Strom, president of the main union of journalists in Australia.
“
Facebook allows conspiracy theorists at QAnon to promote fake news, while at the same time it is censoring real, verified information at a time when Australians need reliable information about the pandemic.
"
►
To read also: Media remuneration: in Australia, the noose is tightening on Google and Facebook
Health services affected in the midst of an emergency
What's more, the blocking is not just about the media.
Hundreds of other pages, including those of government agencies, including health services, have been closed and their content deleted.
Thursday morning, the fire, health and meteorological services across the country saw their pages disrupted on the social network, when several regions were facing emergency situations.
A Facebook spokesperson asserted that official government pages "
should not be affected
" by the retaliatory measures, and pledged the reinstatement of any pages that were "
inadvertently affected
".
Other sites in the country were also affected by this measure and their operation returned to normal over the hours.
Google signs deal with News Corp
This attitude is in complete contradiction with
, which for its part announced in recent days that it had signed agreements with several Australian press groups.
The American giant agreed on Wednesday to pay "
significant sums
" in return for the content of the News Corp press group.
by Rupert Murdoch.
This is the first contract of this type signed by a large press group.
News Corp.
was instrumental in getting the Australian Conservative government to tackle tech giants.
Faced with the challenge of Facebook, Josh Frydenberg, the Australian Minister of Finance, assured that the Australian executive would not back down: “
The Morrison government remains fully determined to pass this law and to apply it.
The Australian Parliament is due to pass this bill by the end of the month, at the latest.
►
To read also: Australia: Microsoft seeks to fill the void that Google could leave
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