Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is contemplating removing news content in Australia if forced to pay a licencing fee to the publishers, according to a report by Reuters.
The disclosure came Friday at a parliamentary hearing by a Meta representative, who was questioned if the company would restrict news content from Facebook in Australia over licencing fees under the country’s News Media Bargaining Code. The representative, saying “all options are on the table”, hinted at a complete blockage of news for Australian users.
“There’s a large number of channels that people can get news content from,” said Mia Garlick at the Social Media and Australian Society inquiry. Garlick is the regional policy director at Meta.
According to Garlick, Meta is waiting for the Australian government to decide if it would take up the 2021 legislation — which obliges Meta to pay news publishers for their content on Facebook.
Meta took a strong action action in Canada last year when the country introduced legislation requiring the US-based tech conglomerate to compensate news publishers. Canada’s Online News Act, which was approved by the parliament in June 2023, became a point of contention between the Canadian government and leading tech companies, primarily Meta and Google, with the former refusing to bargain with news outlets over revenue generated through news links.
Consequently, Meta blocked news content completely from Facebook and Instagram for Canadian users, remarking that news holds no economic value for the social media giant. The Online News Act was aimed at regulating Big Tech platforms and allowing media outlets to bargain for a greater share of revenue that comes from their content on social networking platforms. Google, on the other hand, stated the legislation was “unworkable”.
For Australia, however, Google has announced revising the contracts with news outlets as they expired, an approach starkly different from Meta’s hard-line decision, per a report by an Australian news outlet.
In 2021, Meta temporarily suspended news content from Facebook in Australia following the passage of the journalism compensation law. However, following a series of negotiations and amendments to the legislation, news was restored across Facebook.
Australia is the first country to introduce a law obliging tech companies to compensate news publishers for using their original content on social media platforms. Since then, similar legislation has been enacted or is under deliberation in other countries, including the United States (US) and Malaysia.
