2024-03-01
Today’s announcement from Meta that they will no longer be entering into commercial deals with news organisations is a huge blow to public interest journalism in this country.
The Greens are calling on the Government to immediately move to designate Meta under the News Media Bargaining Code.
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, Greens spokesperson on media and communications said:
“A big tech company like Meta can not be allowed to bully users, journalists and democratically elected governments by deciding which laws of the land they will choose to comply with.
“The News Media Bargaining Code was legislated to ensure that platforms like Facebook are not able to profit off the sharing of news content without paying a fair price for it.
“The Minister has the power to designate Meta under the News Media Bargaining Code and with this announcement today it’s clear that this needs to happen immediately.
“Without professional, fact based journalism Facebook will just be a collection of conspiracy theories, outrage and misinformation. At a time when globally fake news and propaganda are at an all time high, we need to ensure that major platforms like Facebook are able to be a source of public interest journalism.
“We need strong regulation of big tech companies that are making huge profits and have a massive influence on our democracy. The Government must stand up to Meta and designate them under the News Media Bargaining Code.
"The News Media Code should also be strengthened to ensure that a diversity of publishers, especially independent media, are included in future platform deals.”