Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison is giving the world a very important lesson when it comes to handling big tech. Having already won the tussle with Google, the Morrison government has managed to prevail upon Facebook this time.
Facebook and the Morrison government have been at loggerheads with each other, over the proposed news media bargaining code that requires big tech companies to compensate news outlets for publishing stories online. Facebook, of course, did not like the proposal and blocked all news on the social media platform in Australia. But now in a dramatic turn of events, Facebook has restored news pages down under.
The issue in controversy was that the social media giant did not want to pay local news outlets for content, whereas the Morrison government wanted big tech companies like Facebook to pay. Now, Facebook has agreed to pay local media companies as a final deal with Canberra.
Australia’s Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Facebook have indicated that a compromise has been reached on key issues, and accordingly Facebook announced on Tuesday that it would lift the contentious ban on Australian news pages.
The compromise implies that Canberra will not penalise Facebook as well as Google as long as the two big tech companies strike deals with local media houses and compensate them for their content.
Will Easton, Managing Director of Facebook Australia said, “As a result of these changes, we can now work to further our investment in public interest journalism, and restore news on Facebook for Australians in the coming days.”
Now, let us understand how things have panned out. First and foremost, Facebook did not really want to pay Australian media. This is why the social media giant was trying to put a lot of pressure on the Morrison government. Facebook had not only blacked out news for Australian users, but had also inadvertently blacked out several non-news pages linked to issues like cancer charity and even emergency response actions.
Facebook’s actions however caused a global outrage. Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison himself went as far as suggesting that he would interact with other world leaders like India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi about Canberra’s face-off with big tech. At the same time, Morrison’s cabinet kept pushing back against the social media giant.
So, Facebook really reached a situation in which it had to work out a deal with the Australian government. Otherwise, the matter could have got internationalised which would have done more harm than good to the big tech company.
Easton said, “We’re pleased that we’ve been able to reach an agreement with the Australian government and appreciate the constructive discussions we’ve had.”
Now, people can debate who won and who lost. But at the end of the day, it is the social media giant which had to dial down its position, while the Morrison government stood firm on its demand. Morrison government has thus triumphed over big tech, as Facebook kneels before the Australian PM within days of the digital stand-off with Canberra.