March 13, 2024
Facebook’s refusal to pay for its use of Australian journalism has become “a matter of national security”, according to an American whistleblower who is urging our government to stand up to the giant.
Frances Haugen worked as a product manager on the social network’s integrity team before leaking documents that showed it prioritised growth over safety.
She said Mark Zuckerberg’s refusal to fairly compensate Aussie media companies under the News Media Bargaining Code undermines Australia’s safety, security and sovereignty.
Ms Haugen spoke exclusively to Sky News Australia as part of an investigation, “Tech Tyrants: Facebook's War on Australia", airing on Sky News this Wednesday at 8.30pm
“(If) you don’t stand up and defend your laws, what’s going to happen to them?” she said, urging the Albanese Government to push back.
“This is a matter of national security … no one person, and no one company is worth more than Australian democracy.
“It is really a question what kind of world do you want to live in? We know what kind of world Meta will optimise for. It will be whatever is the least amount of effort that they can do to continue bringing in massive profits.”
Last week Australia’s top media executives, including News Corp Australia’s Executive Chairman of Australia Michael Miller, were summoned to conference calls and told one-by-one that Facebook parent company Meta “wouldn’t negotiate”.
The multi-trillion-dollar company said its decision was linked to claims performance of Australian and US news content across Facebook dropped by 80 per cent last year.
“As we previously shared … news makes up less than three per cent of what people around the world see in the Facebook feed,” a Meta spokesman said in a statement at the time.
But the company has been accused of changing its algorithm, and making a product known as News Tabs difficult to find, to artificially limit the reach of news.
In 2021 it signed deals worth upwards of $70-million annually to feature content, paying a royalty for the stories and information it used to generate revenue.
Last year it completely blocked all news in Canada after the government followed Australia’s landmark move and passed legislation, similar to Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code, with the intention of bringing tech giants to the negotiating table.
“I want to say I was surprised when Facebook made their announcement (in Australia), but the reality is Facebook has been acting … over and over again … like they are their own independent nation state, that the law doesn’t apply to them,” she said.
Ms Haugan said Facebook was obsessed with cost-cutting and sees accredited news, podcasts and “influencers” as being of equal value.
“We have seen over the last 18 months … that (social media) companies have been focusing really aggressively on cutting,” she said.
“Meta, Facebook, Instagram – whatever you want to call it - optimises for their own bottom line, making sure they spend as little money as possible on safety to make the largest possible profit because they see that’s what the market rewards them for.
“That cost cutting comes at the expense of public safety.”
The whistleblower said the loss of regulated and professional news content would create a gap which could be filled with misinformation and radical content.
“They want to believe content produced peer to peer, content produced by influencers is of equal value to that created by a formal news organisation,” she said.
“We should be concerned about people who have much more malicious goals when it comes to influencing Australian democracy.
“We have seen over, and over again, both in the Ukraine war and the Israel Hamas conflict, that information warfare is now one of the critical fronts in any conflict. It costs very little money compared to bombs or an invasion to attack a society using information.”
It is a position shared by Shadow Minister and Liberal Senator, James Paterson, who formerly chaired the Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.
“I am very worried in particular with the way in which foreign authoritarian states have very successfully weaponised both western head quarter platforms and platforms in their own countries to pump disinformation into our political system as an attempt to divide us, to weaken us and undermine our democracy,” he told Sky News.
“I am very concerned putting quality news off this platform will just provide more space for the Chinese communist party, the Russian government … and others to use these platforms to undermine our country.”
The Senator said there was a need for greater factual information online, not less.
“The best antidote to … disinformation is true information, factual information that comes from Australian news media organisations,” he said.
The Australian Government has vowed to follow the process and is considering designating Facebook under the media bargaining code, which will force the tech giant back to the negotiating table.
Under the landmark legislation if a tech giant is designated it can be forced into negotiation, mediation and arbitration to settle on a fair price.
The system was established following an ACCC investigation that examined the enormous power of tech companies.
Facebook said it would allow news to remain on its platform but is refusing to sign any deals when current arrangements expire.
