Peta Credlin: Australia must win its fight against ‘bully’ Facebook

I don’t know who is advising these Facebook billionaires from Silicon Valley, but attempting to bully Aussies won’t get you far.

Kevin Rudd made a complete fool of himself on Friday, fronting a parliamentary inquiry to complain about a “Murdoch monopoly”, when it’s the censors and bullies of Big Tech that are the clear and present danger to free speech.

Surely no one has forgotten that in the lead up to his stint as “Kevin 07”, Rudd courted Rupert Murdoch in New York City, including a late-night visit to a strip club with one of his editors? Or that the same papers that he says brought him down actually editorialised for him and against John Howard in 2007.

Rudd’s distorted version of events even extended to accusing News Corp paper of a systemic systematic campaign against Julia Gillard that “bordered on misogyny” when his own foul-mouthed rants against his successor are both legendary and unprintable; thankfully at least Twitter exploded on this point with journalist after journalist exposing his rank hypocrisy.

Meanwhile, away from ‘Planet Sour Grapes and Double Standards’, our government was actually leading the world in finally subjecting Big Tech to the rule of law.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd gives evidence at the Environment and Communications References Committee. Picture: Sam Mooy/Getty

And for once, both sides of politics united in condemning Facebook’s attempt to cancel Australia just because we’re about to pass laws making Big Tech pay for the news copy that attracts so many people to its feed and that’s helped to make Facebook a business valued at over $700 billion.

Say what you like about the Australian media outlets that Facebook suspended last Thursday, but all of them take responsibility for what they publish and they all obey Australian law. Not so, Big Tech.

But while Google came to a commercial arrangement with Australian media outlets this week, to compensate them for the viewers lost and the advertising revenue that Big Tech pirates, Facebook had the mother of dummy spits and blocked all Australian media posts in an attempt to make the government back down.

I don’t know who is advising these billionaires from Silicon Valley but bullying us or our government doesn’t get you far in this country.

Instead of sitting down and negotiating a deal as other companies have done, Facebook has effectively said to the government that it’s not prepared to operate under Australian law.

Facebook banned all Australian news media sites. Picture: Denis Charlet/AFP

This is the ugly side of Big Tech that most Australians might not have noticed before, but need to understand because Big Tech is embedded into almost every aspect of modern life.

If you don’t pay for something upfront online, that’s because you’re the product. Your online self — what you do, spend, read and even where you go outside your home is tracked and sold on. So it’s absolutely in your interests to understand this fight, and to join it.

It has always angered me the way Facebook claims it lacks the monitoring ability to shut down terrorist sites and paedophile pages.

Yet what we saw last week shows that they’re more than capable of sorting out the online anarchy when it suits Facebook to protect its own interests.

Facebook has always claimed that it’s not a publisher, more a public service. Well now we know, it’s a self-styled public service that picks and chooses who can use it.

Just recently it banned Donald Trump from ever posting again, after the Capitol Hill riot; and it temporarily suspended MP Craig Kelly from posting, because he backed a number of prominent scientists regarding coronavirus treatments.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Picture: Samuel Corum/Getty

This time, it’s hasn’t just cancelled the individuals it disagrees with, but a whole country because it doesn’t like what our government is doing.

It’s not just an out-of-control, overbearing left-wing censor; but a bully trying to intimidate Australia in its own commercial self-interest.

This is a fight that matters and that the government must win.

No business, however powerful, should be able to intimidate the Australian government; and no business, however influential, should be able to bully the parliament against passing legislation that’s in our national interest. And this principle, that Big Tech can’t unfairly take advantage of others, should be just for starters.

As well, Big Tech must start paying tax in the countries where it makes its money; and Big Tech must stop hiding the identities of criminals and predators.

Facebook is playing hardball here because it knows the world is watching to see whether an elected government can really be sovereign over Big Tech.

Whether you voted for him or not, the PM has shown exemplary political courage taking on Big Tech and as a country we need to stand with him.

Watch Peta Credlin on Sky News, weeknights at 6pm