We don’t have to give Facebook a free ride

By Misha Ketchell, The Conversation

Last week we learnt that Facebook (Meta) is getting out of the news business to avoid paying for journalism under the Australian Government’s News Media Bargaining Code. Naturally as journalists we are disappointed – jobs will go – but no one is surprised. Facebook is doing what it has always done, which is to pursue its interests ruthlessly.

For over a decade Facebook courted the Australian media, now it has tossed it aside. Its conduct brings to mind the old fable of the scorpion and the frog. The scorpion wants to get to the other side of the river and asks a frog to carry it. The frog agrees, even though it fears the scorpion will sting. Halfway into the crossing, the scorpion stings the frog. It is in my nature, the scorpion explains.

So it is with Facebook, which convinced Australia’s media that it was a good idea to produce high-quality content and put it on Facebook for free. When ACCC chairman Rod Sims came up with a plan to make Facebook pay, out came the stinger. Facebook removed news from its Australian platform and threatened to withdraw from publishing news altogether. (It’s currently using the same tactic in Canada to avoid similar laws.)

In some markets Facebook’s popularity is waning, but it persists because it is engineered to be addictive – just like smoking and arguably as toxic. A few years ago whistleblower Frances Haugen claimed Facebook knew its products were harmful but it put profits above user safety. That was just the tip of the iceberg.

Facebook has a well-documented history of allowing hate, threats and misinformation to flourish. It also allowed Cambridge Analytica to scrape data from tens of millions of users and use it to aid political candidates, including Donald Trump. Profiting from misinformation and disinformation is core to its business model. The campaign of character assassination on Facebook against the Philippines-based journalist Maria Ressa speaks volumes about the company’s commitment to journalism, journalists’ safety and human rights.

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