Facebook Australia: PM Scott Morrison 'will not be intimidated' by tech giant
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said his government will not be intimidated by Facebook blocking news feeds to users.He described the move to "unfriend Australia" as arrogant and disappointing.
Facebook is responding to a proposed law which would make tech giants pay for news content on their platforms.
It says the legislation "fundamentally misunderstands" the relationship between the platform and publishers.
Australians on Thursday woke up to find that Facebook pages of all local and global news sites were unavailable. People outside the country are also unable to read or access any Australian news publications on the platform.
Several government health and emergency pages were also blocked. Facebook later asserted this was a mistake and many of these pages are now back online.
Both Google and Facebook have fought the law, saying it unfairly "penalises" their platforms.
However, in contrast to Facebook, Google has in recent days signed payment deals with major Australian media outlets. Facebook's action came hours afterGoogle agreed to pay Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for content from news sites across its media empire.
What is the response to the ban?
In a statement posted on Facebook,Mr Morrison said that big tech companies might be changing the world but this did not mean they should run it.
"Facebook's actions to unfriend Australia today, cutting off essential information services on health and emergency services, were as arrogant as they were disappointing," he said."I am in regular contact with the leaders of other nations on these issues. We simply won't be intimidated," he added.
Mr Morrison urged Facebook to work constructively with the government, "as Google recently demonstrated in good faith".
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the ban on news information had a "huge community impact". About 17 million Australians visit the social media site every month.
Consumption of digital news through social media and search engines is growing in Australia, according to the Reuters Digital News Report for 2020.
Some 37% of consumers who took part said they had gained access to news via social media over the course of a week, compared with 31% who had directly accessed websites or apps, the report said.
Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan accused Facebook of "behaving like a North Korean dictator".
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