Days after Facebook parent company Meta announced it would no longer support news outlets financially, the president of one of Australia’s biggest media groups declared on Monday that the nation should resist the advances of tech companies.Michael Miller, executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, claimed that Meta’s move will expose Australians to more frauds and false information in addition to endangering hundreds of jobs.
“Australia must not surrender its leadership in being a country that is prepared to stand up to tech giants,” he said in comments to one of the company’s newspapers.
“Meta believes it is above our government and above our laws. It has no care for communities.”
MThe social media behemoth claimed that people weren’t using Facebook for news and political material, which was the reason behind its decision to end the news partnership.Miller continued by saying that frauds continued to happen in spite of Meta’s assertions that it tried to stop them.
“And it’s not just scams, it’s the misinformation, it’s the fake news, it’s the social impact that it’s having for all Australians… particularly young Australians who don’t yet have the maturity to understand that what they are seeing on Meta’s platforms is not always real,” he said.
“It’s not just doing damage to the media industry, it’s doing damage to our democracy.”
Prior to this, Meta had declared that it would not be extending its content agreements with US, UK, French, and German news publishers.The most recent decision was anticipated, but it will be devastating to Australian news organizations who are already having a hard time making ends meet.A Meta representative declined to comment on Miller’s statements, but stated that publishers may continue to use their sites to post material, and users would still be able to share and read news content as a result of Friday’s decision.
