On Thursday, Australians woke to blank news feeds on their Facebook pages. The move from Facebook comes after months of tension with the Australian government, which has proposed legislation that would force tech firms to pay news publishers for content.
Here's what you should know.
WHAT HAPPENED?
• Facebook blocked a huge number of Australian Facebook pages including news pages, on February 18, 2021.
• It's the latest dispute in the long-drawn clash over a news revenue-sharing law proposed under the Australian government.
• Facebook lawyers are fighting a new legislation targeted to tackle a power imbalance between the social media giants and Australian publishers.
• Several major state government Facebook accounts were affected including those providing information on the COVID-19 pandemic and bushfire warnings.
• Contents of many charity and NGO accounts were also emptied.
WHY IS FACEBOOK DOING THIS?
• It is a dispute over money, particularly regarding news revenue-sharing law which is about to be passed by Australia's lawmakers.
• News organisations want more from the revenue which these big digital platforms get.
.WHAT IS THE NEW AUSSIE LAW THE BIG TECHS ARE UP AGAINST?
• It is known as the government’s new "Media Bargaining Code".
• This code allows news organisations to negotiate with digital platforms on matters such as how their algorithms work to focus on content and money.
• The suggested legislation is intended to confront a power imbalance between the social media giants and publishers when considering payment for news content used on these sites.
• The bill was put forward by the government and the country's competition regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) digital platforms inquiry that found it was hard for content providers to deal with platforms whose rules kept changing.
WHAT DOES THE CODE PRESCRIBE?
Australia's new code represents the most extensive reform. The code enables news organisations to earn income from digital platforms.
According to Reuters, the proposed legislation which is yet to be implemented has massive support from the Australian parliament, as it is anticipated to be voted into law "within days".
These are the main points of the proposed legislation:
• News outlets will be required to negotiate commercial deals individually or collectively with Facebook and Google. If an agreement is not reached, an arbitrator will decide which platform has a reasonable offer.
• Under the new legislation, it will be compulsory for these tech firms to share their use of consumer data obtained from the news content on their sites.
• The proposed law also requires these tech firms to notify media outlets as and when they alter search algorithms which affects the order in which content looks.
WHY HAS THE DISPUTE ESCALATED?
• Traditional media companies operating in Australia have suffered huge hits to income streams, due to dwindling subscriptions and advertising.
• Content creators and providers are left out in this long-drawn digital party, where these tech giants have made the world their stomping ground.
WHAT DID FACEBOOK SAY?
• According to Facebook, it had no choice but to implement the news block but international publishers can continue to publish news content on its platform.
• Vice-president, Campbell Brown said in his blog , ‘We think we can do more and through the Facebook Journalism Project we have the right resources and team in place to bring innovation to the future of digital news.”
• Facebook says this includes ‘funding accelerators and programs to train journalists with new skills and support newsroom digital transformation.’
• Facebook also stated its platform produces billions of free referrals to Australian publishers worth substantial amounts to the media companies.
• The statement said: "As the law does not provide clear guidance on the definition of news content, we have taken a broad definition."
• Brown said the giant tech ‘pay hundreds of publishers for access to more of their content for Facebook News’ and has ‘expanded work with the region’s fact-checking community as well as offering grants to support newsrooms affected by COVID-19 pandemic.’
Among the list of programs Facebook rolled out in APAC, which includes local publishers:
• In 2020, Reader Revenue Accelerator APAC (Coaching + Grants) was launched with 12 newsrooms across 8 countries including Singapore Press Holdings, Tempo, Frontier, Hong Kong Cable TV, the South China Morning Post, Apple Daily, CommonWealth, Bangkok Post, Inquirer, New Straits Times, MalaysiaKini and Sin Chew.
• Launched WAN-IFRA’s Newsroom Business Transformation 2020, a six-month training program for 10 news organisations across Southeast Asia (including Sin Chew and The Edge). The training program was showcased at the WAN IFRA Digital Media Asia conference in December. Five participants also shared what they’d learnt here.
• In 2019, APAC Video Accelerator program with the final reconvening of participants held virtually in June 2020. The 13 Video Accelerator participants were: South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), Kompas TV (Indonesia), TV One (Indonesia), Astro Awani (Malaysia), TV3 (Malaysia), ABS-CBN (Philippines), GMA (Philippines), News 5 (Philippines), Mediacorp (Singapore), Singapore Press Holdings (Singapore), Khaosod (Thailand), Thai PBS (Thailand), Thairath (Thailand).
• In 2020, Facebook provided training programs to help APAC media companies build their digital businesses and develop revenue streams.
• In September 2020, Instant Articles Optimization Bootcamp was conducted, bringing 479 participants from APAC and Europe. Throughout the year, several APAC companies highlighted their successes with IA, including Malaysia’s Sin Chew and five media companies in Taiwan.
• Supported APAC media companies’ efforts to maintain and grow video engagement and monetization by conducting Digital Media Bootcamp: COVID -19 Edition with training on Going Live on Facebook; The International Centre for Journalists and Facebook Journalism Project conducted a four-part webinar series on Virtual Video Content Creation.
• More than 1,000 media professionals across the region participated in the Digital Media Bootcamp: COVID-19 Edition to learn product best practices for covering COVID-19, from over 12 countries - including from Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Myanmar - all markets were involved including India and Pakistan.
• The giant tech supports Splice Beta and worked with Splice Media to support news and media start-ups in the region across diverse APAC markets, including grants for startups to prototype new products.
• It continues to expand third party fact checking programs in Asia Pacific and have fact-checking partners across 16 countries. In Malaysia, FB works with AFP as the third part fact checking partner.
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