I’m often asked why Meta (owners of Facebook) should be forced to pay compensation to news publishers.

It’s a fair question.

On the surface, Facebook can be seen as a media disruptor, like Uber upending the taxi industry, or cars replacing horse and cart.

It’s easy to think social media is just the “new and improved” media.

But Facebook isn’t a modern version of traditional media at all — it’s an entirely different thing.

The core business of traditional media is producing content — primarily news and entertainment. We are a product business.

Facebook doesn’t produce any content.

Zero.

Its business model is to ‘share’ other people’s content — without paying for it.

This has never been done at scale before.

In the early days, many of us curated our Facebook feeds to include trusted news sources. That made the platform more important to us, more credible, and far more valuable.

Credible journalism gave Facebook enormous legitimacy. It made the feed worth coming back to — and helped Facebook build its empire.

Credit where due — Facebook was a brilliant pioneer of the internet, effectively inventing social media and colonising the World Wide Web. It offered everything for free — until we relied on it.

Then they cashed in — creating one of the most powerful and profitable corporations in history.

But like all new boom industries, social media’s race to dominate the internet has left regulation in the starter’s blocks.

There were no guardrails to protect people and organisations from the consequences of its domination.

No recourse for scams or misinformation.

No regard for the mental health of teenagers.

No thought for the destruction of regional news services.

The benefits of social media are clear. But the full extent of the harms caused by Facebook — and the copycat platforms that followed — are still not fully understood, let alone addressed.

Facebook’s real ‘product’ is you.

Your attention is what they sell. And they’ll serve up almost anything to keep it — along with your personal data — to advertisers, based on what you read, watch, click, and where you go online.

Now, with Meta glasses, they’re even tracking what you see and say every day. The potential for harm is staggering.

While Facebook deserves credit for innovation, its refusal to engage with regulation is contemptible.

Google has behaved differently.

Its core product — search — is also vastly more valuable when it includes journalism from credible sources. For example, when you search for updates on a local bushfire or the war in Ukraine, those results are far more valuable when they include stories from trained journalists at credible news organisations.

Without trusted journalism in the mix, Google’s search results would be less relevant, less useful — and far less valuable.

That’s why Google agreed to pay Australian news publishers after the introduction of the world-first News Media Bargaining Code in 2021.

Facebook initially complied. Then it walked away. It is now openly defying the Australian government and refusing to pay for the journalism that helped build their empire and continues to drive their profits.

The Albanese Government is responding with the News Bargaining Incentive to force it to the table. So far, Facebook has responded with silence and contempt.

Let’s put this into perspective as the government stands up to the bullying tactics of Meta.

Imagine for a moment that Meta was a mining company.

It’s not a perfect analogy, but it’s a useful one.

Mining companies don’t own the resources they extract — so they pay royalties because those resources belong to the people.

Facebook doesn’t own the internet or the content it extracts — yet it refuses to pay anyone, anything.

Mining companies impact the environment, so they pay taxes, levies and offsets.

Facebook has damaged the information environment massively — spreading scams, misinformation and harmful content — yet takes no responsibility.

Mining is dangerous, so companies are required to invest in safety, education and emergency services.

Facebook profits from dangerous content that fuels our mental health crisis — yet contributes nothing to public wellbeing.

Mining companies affect the communities where mines are located, so they invest in those communities as part of their social licence to operate.

Facebook has pillaged and damaged local news in regional Australia. Now it refuses to pay for the journalism it profits from.

If Facebook were a mining company, we wouldn’t let it get away with it.

We’d shut it down.

Damian Morgan

Country Press Australia president

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Sunday, 1st January 2023

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