Three hours into Facebook’s Australian news blackout on 17 February 2021, a concerned employee sent a note to colleagues at the social media company.
“Australian news ban took down pages that are not news sources,” the note said, pointing to blocked government pages, fire and emergency services, official health pages and domestic violence charities.
“We should be proactive here, not reactive, given the damage this is doing to Facebook’s reputation in Australia.”
Some pages, including the Bureau of Meteorology and 1800Respect, were quickly restored, but others such as WWF-Australia and Women’s Legal Service were not.
Whistleblowers within Facebook’s parent company, Meta, have now come forward labelling the move a negotiating tactic in a long-running fight over legislation that would have required Meta and Google to negotiate with news organisations over payment for their content.
The submission from Whistleblower Aid to lawmakers in the US and the competition regulator in Australia was made public this month, containing screenshots of the internal Facebook conversation.
Facebook’s Australian newsban was the peak of the standoff between Meta and the former Morrison government over its news media bargaining code – the legislation which forces digital platforms to negotiate with news media companies.
Platforms that are “designated” under the code are subject to its terms, meaning they must reach an agreement with all media companies that meet the criteria...
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