‘Bully boy’ Facebook won’t get our cash
Facebook has been slammed for using “bullyboy tactics” and for not being “compatible with democracy” as the stoush between the Federal Government and the tech giant intensifies.
Health Minister Greg Hunt confirmed yesterday that the Government had closed its wallet to the social media platform, refusing to pay to promote posts about the vaccine rollout and the pandemic.
He moved to assure Australians there would still be official Government information on Facebook, just that no department would be paying to push it further.
Facebook last week took the extreme step of banning and blocking the sharing of all legitimate news stories on its platform in Australia.
The move accidentally blocked a raft of critical health and emergency service pages as well.
It came in response to the proposed news media bargaining code that, once legislated, would force tech companies to pay for news.
Google has struck a series of major deals with Australian news organisations — including Seven West Media, publisher of The West Australian — after threatening to withdraw from the Australian market.
David Cicilline, a US congressman who led the 2020 Big Tech inquiry, said Facebook’s move was an admission of “monopoly power”.
“Facebook is not compatible with democracy,” he said.
“Threatening to bring an entire country to its knees to agree to Facebook’s terms is the ultimate admission of monopoly power.”
British politician Julian Knight, who chairs the Commons digital, culture, media and sport select committee, said the extreme tactics would backfire.
“This action — this bully boy action — that they’ve undertaken in Australia will, I think, ignite a desire to go further amongst legislators around the world,” he said.
As the Government begins its vaccine rollout, Mr Hunt said paid advertising to push Department of Health messages was off the cards “for now”.
“You have corporate titans acting as sovereign bullies and they won’t get away with it,” he said.
“We will stand up as a country.”