Members of Facebook’s supervisory board, which some compared to an internal “supreme court”, were asked to speak out or resign after the platform shut down much of the media and major public information sites during a battle with the Australian government.
The social media giant suspended pages – including those from government agencies and state health departments before the national launch of the coronavirus vaccine – as part of a confrontation with authorities over a new law that would force the company and other platforms to pay for links to news content.
This constituted an “attack on democracy”, alerted an open letter from dozens of charities, media and campaign groups around the world, including Save the Children Australia, Hope not Hate and Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.
“Access to reliable and quality information is an integral part of our democracy and our society,” said the letter. Eliminating it, “gives room for misinformation and hate speech to fill the void left behind”.
Facebook can wait up to a week before unlocking some of the pages of hundreds of non-media organizations involved in its news ban, the Observer understands, while anti-vaccination content and misinformation continue to run wild.
Facebook has long argued, in response to requests for control of its social media empire, that self-regulation is more effective than government regulation, pointing to bodies like the supervisory board.
But that body moves slowly to judge only past controversies, so it cannot weigh in on events that move quickly as they happen, said Maria Ressa, co-founder and CEO of Philippine news site Rappler, which was sought after by President Rodrigo Duterte for her to work.
It also has “no say in the design of the platform itself, which is where the problem lies”, he adds. As a member of the “Real Facebook Oversight Board”, a campaign agency that calls for more responsibility, she also supports the open letter.
The crisis in Australia highlighted for her the problems with her current model. Rappler has partnered with Facebook to provide fact checking on the site for news produced in the Philippines. But because the ban restricts Australian users and publishers from viewing or sharing all the news, the country’s large Philippine diaspora has been effectively vulnerable to disinformation, she said.
“What infuriated me was that all news organizations in the Philippines are not visible in Australia. But government propaganda (is) visible in Australia, ”she said. “So, essentially, for Filipinos and the Filipino diaspora, you will see the lies, but you will not see the fact check.”
This shows a major disconnect between people on Facebook who say they are committed to keeping the site safe and supporting democracy, and those who work on the business side and deal with Australian law, she said.
Since then, a senior executive has apologized for taking down health and government websites, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Facebook is back at the negotiating table. But the company has not publicly indicated any change in its opposition to the proposed law, which, according to senior executives, sets “an impractical precedent”.
In contrast, rival tech giant Google has signed more than 50 deals with Australian publishers to present its journalism on its News Showcase product.
Guardian Australia is the latest media company to reach an agreement, just days before the Senate debated the federal government’s news media code.
“Quality journalism is a public good and a highly valuable asset for publishers and platforms, as this agreement demonstrates,” said Dan Stinton, managing director at Guardian Australia, of the agreement.
“We also congratulate the … Australian government on the development of digital platforms and the news media trading code, with this world-leading legislation providing the necessary regulatory environment to ensure fair trade deals that will sustain Australian journalism in the future.”
The news media code would require Google and Facebook to negotiate payment for news publishers’ content, and if no agreement is reached, an arbitrator will decide the financial terms of the deal.