Mr Frydenberg told a press conference on Thursday afternoon he had been givenno warning of Facebook’s decision,which it said it was taking to carry through on athreat it made in September after being unable to find a solution in discussions with the Australian government.
“Facebook was wrong. Facebook’s actions were unnecessary. They were heavy-handed and they will damage its reputation here in Australia,” Mr Frydenberg said. “We certainly weren’t given any notice by Facebook.”
The bargaining code, which passed through the House of Representatives on Wednesday night,will require social media companies to pay media outlets for using their content. The bill is expected to pass the Senate and become law as early as next week.
Mr Frydenberg,who spoke to Facebook global chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday morning,indicated the government was prepared to consider further amendments to the bill to accommodate the tech giant’s concerns. But he said “time would tell” whether a resolution could be negotiated.
“We’ll see if we can reach some clarifications and get them back to the table and keep them
providing their service here in Australia. But our commitment,our number one commitment,is to legislate this code,” Mr Frydenberg said.
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said Facebook’s decision to block authoritative news sources would further expose the company to the spread of misinformation and unverified content.
“What they’re effectively saying to Australians is,‘you will not find content on our platform which comes from an organisation which employs professional journalists,which has editorial policies,which has fact-checking processes’,” Mr Fletcher said.
Facebook’s Australia and New Zealand managing director,William Easton,said in a blog post early on Thursday morning the decision had been made because the proposed code “fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content.”
“It has left us facing a stark choice:attempt to comply with a law that ignores the realities of this relationship,or stop allowing news content on our services in Australia. With a heavy heart,we are choosing the latter,” Mr Easton said on the company’s blog.
Facebook’s stance was different to search giant Google,which had also threatened to exit Australia. Google has since struck multi-million dollar deals with major Australian publishers for the use of their content.
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Media publishers including Nine Entertainment Co,publisher ofThe Sydney Morning Herald andThe Age,News Corp and the ABC,also criticised Facebook’s decision.
Nine’s outgoing chief executive Hugh Marks said Facebook’s decision was “a real shock” and showed why the code was needed.
“They are trying to prove how powerful they are. They’ve certainly proven that. The purpose of the legislation is actually trying to deal with that power,so they are kicking a massive own goal,” he told Sydney radio station 2GB.
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