CANBERRA: Australia should force Meta Platforms to pay news companies for content that appears on Facebook and impose broader regulation on social media firms, a senior News Corp. executive said.
Meta said in March it would stop paying Australian news publishers for content. The government is now considering whether to apply a 2021 law that would force it to do so.
“Meta must be designated under the Media Bargaining Code and challenged to negotiate in good faith,” News Corp. Australia executive chairman Michael Miller said in a speech in Canberra, using the jargon of the 2021 legislation.
“We had a deal — and they walked away. I believe they have an obligation to renew the agreements, and honor our laws,” he said.
“We can’t let ourselves be bullied.”
Asked for comment, Meta referred Reuters to a company blog post that said interest in news was declining on its platforms and cast those platforms as free distribution channels that media companies could use to expand their audiences.
Publishers argue that Facebook and other Internet giants profit unfairly from advertising revenue when links to news articles appear on their platforms.
Meta struck payment deals with Australian media firms in 2021, most of which lapse this year.
If the government tries to enforce the 2021 law, Meta could block users from reposting news articles as it did briefly in Australia in 2021 and has done since 2023 in Canada, which has similar laws and where academics have noted an increased spread of misinformation as a result.
Meta has been reducing its promotion of news and political content to drive traffic and has said it will discontinue a tab on Facebook promoting news in Australia.
In his speech, Miller also decried the impact of social media on mental health and its amplification of scams and social ills such as misogyny.
He proposed a regulatory framework for tech firms such as Meta, Tik Tok and X, formerly known as Twitter, that he said would protect Australians.
This would include making companies liable for all content on their platforms, competition laws for digital advertising, better handling of consumer complaints and donations to mental health programs.
Companies that do not abide by these rules should be barred from the Australian market, he said.
A spokesperson for Meta said: “The suggestion that Meta doesn’t respect Australian laws or community standards is preposterous.”
The company has restricted access to content in line with Australian laws, worked with law enforcement to prevent real world harm and trained thousands of young Australians in online safety, they said.
Australia should force Meta to pay for news, News Corp. executive says
https://arab.news/gnr9y
Australia should force Meta to pay for news, News Corp. executive says
- Meta said in March it would stop paying Australian news publishers for content
- Australian government now considering whether to apply a 2021 law that would force it to do so
BBC says will fight Trump's $10 bn defamation lawsuit
LONDON: The BBC said Tuesday it would fight a $10-billion lawsuit brought by US President Donald Trump against the British broadcaster over a documentary that edited his 2021 speech ahead of the US Capitol riot.
“As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case,” a BBC spokesperson said in a statement sent to AFP, adding the company would not be making “further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Miami, seeks “damages in an amount not less than $5,000,000,000” for each of two counts against the British broadcaster, for alleged defamation and violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
The video that triggered the lawsuit spliced together two separate sections of Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021 in a way that made it appear he explicitly urged supporters to attack the Capitol, where lawmakers were certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
The lawsuit comes as the UK government on Tuesday launched the politically sensitive review of the BBC’s Royal Charter, which outlines the corporation’s funding and governance and needs to be renewed in 2027.
As part of the review, it launched a public consultation on issues including the role of “accuracy” in the BBC’s mission and contentious reforms to the corporation’s funding model, which currently relies on a mandatory fee for anyone in the country who watches television.
Minister Stephen Kinnock stressed after the lawsuit was filed that the UK government “is a massive supporter of the BBC.”
The BBC has “been very clear that there is no case to answer in terms of Mr.Trump’s accusation on the broader point of libel or defamation. I think it’s right the BBC stands firm on that point,” Kinnock told Sky News on Tuesday.
Trump, 79, had said the lawsuit was imminent, claiming the BBC had “put words in my mouth,” even positing that “they used AI or something.”
The documentary at issue aired last year before the 2024 election, on the BBC’s “Panorama” flagship current affairs program.
Apology letter
“The formerly respected and now disgraced BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech in a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 Presidential Election,” a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said in a statement to AFP.
“The BBC has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own leftist political agenda,” the statement added.
The British Broadcasting Corporation, whose audience extends well beyond the United Kingdom, faced a period of turmoil last month after a media report brought renewed attention to the edited clip.
The scandal led the BBC director general, Tim Davie, and the organization’s top news executive, Deborah Turness, to resign.
Trump’s lawsuit says the edited speech in the documentary was “fabricated and aired by the Defendants one week before the 2024 Presidential Election in a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence the Election’s outcome to President Trump’s detriment.”
The BBC has denied Trump’s claims of legal defamation, though BBC chairman Samir Shah has sent Trump a letter of apology.
Shah also told a UK parliamentary committee last month the broadcaster should have acted sooner to acknowledge its mistake after the error was disclosed in a memo, which was leaked to The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
The BBC lawsuit is the latest in a string of legal actions Trump has taken against media companies in recent years, several of which have led to multi-million-dollar settlements.
