Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has once again spoken with Mark Zukerberg, CEO of Facebook using a different social media platform to give an update.
“Today I had a further conversation with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg,” the Treasurer tweeted. “We talked through their remaining issues & agreed our respective teams would work through them immediately. We’ll talk again over the weekend. I reiterated Australia remains committed to implementing the code.” The code that’s being looked at is the News Media Bargaining Code. It’s being displayed by Frydenberg as the only way to guarantee that digital giants make payment to be able to access Australian news contents and also the only way to maintain public interest journalism in the country.
Speaking on ABC AM ahead of his call with Zuckerberg, Frydenberg said he and the CEO have been in constant contact via messages. “I’ve expressed obviously my disappointment to Mark yesterday about Facebook’s actions which were unnecessary, heavy-handed, and were very problematic,” he said.
Facebook was certain and made sure that its threat to block Australian news on its plat form was carried out on Thursday 18th February. Frydenberg commented that such a move was wrong and un-necessary.
“These digital companies may be changing the world, but they don’t run it,” Frydenberg said. “We’re trying to succeed where others have failed. There’s more at stake than just one or two commercial deals — this is very much about Australia’s sovereignty, this is very much about Australia making laws for Australians.” Appearing on 2GB, Frydenberg claimed to not understand why pages such as those run by government entities or non-profits were collateral damage under Facebook’s ban hammer. “For the life of me I can’t understand why they’d block NSW Fire and Rescue or the Royal Children’s Hospital,” he said.
Facebook while announcing the ban referred as to why it was so and emphasized that the applicable legislations does not provide clear guidance on the definition of the contents of the news being reported. The legislation states: Core news content means content that reports, investigates, or explains: a) issues or events that are relevant in engaging Australians in public debate and in informing democratic decision-making; or b) current issues or events of public significance for Australians at a local, regional or national level.
Frydenberg on Thursday 18th February during a press conference when asked about that very specific claim, his response was that he did not accept Facebook’s interpretation of the definition of news as he believes it is clear that the legislation does not apply to government information. Former Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, meanwhile, has said the problem is that Facebook has grown so big that it doesn’t respect Australia’s laws or democracy. At the same time, he has called for the government to solve the Facebook news ban. “I mean, they cut off political parties’ Facebook sites. This is a challenge which the whole world’s going to have to take on,” he said. “And like it or not, Australia is now in a fight. And I know people just want this solved and we want the government to solve it.” But the Shadow Minister for Government Services agrees with Frydenberg that Australia can’t back down to Facebook. “Because if we do, then we are surrendering, I think, our national sovereignty,” Shorten said. Josh Frydenberg said he’s not intimidated by Google’s threats to pull Search from Australia, either.
