Facebook’s Australian news ban proves ‘an own goal’

Facebook’s decision to restrict news content to its Australian users in February badly damaged the company’s local reputation.

facebook’s reputation in Australia has taken a hit after its controversial decision to restrict news content. Picture: AFP

Facebook’s decision to restrict news content to its Australian users in February badly damaged the company’s local reputation.

According to a survey conducted by Essential Research on behalf of Reset Australia — a not-for-profit organisation that works to counter digital threats to democracy — 50 per cent of Australians now have a lower opinion of Facebook following the social media giant’s controversial move to ban all local news content from its platform for a week earlier this year.

A further 42 per cent of those surveyed said their opinion of Facebook was unaffected by the ban, while 8 per cent said they had a higher opinion of the Mark Zuckerberg-owned company as a result of the news blackout.

More than half (51 per cent) of those surveyed said they were affected in some way by the news ban, with 11 per cent reporting they lost all of their main sources of current affairs and news content during the Facebook news block.

Chris Cooper, executive director of Reset Australia, said Facebook had behaved irresponsibly during news media bargaining code negotiations.

“As the government prepared its COVID-19 vaccine rollout, almost one in 10 Australians lost access to their main source of news because of Facebook’s news ban,” he said.

“The news media bargaining code is an imperfect tool designed to try and begin addressing big tech’s outsized contort of Australian’s information landscape.

“But the news ban was a spectacular own goal and drastically lowered Facebook’s reputation in Australia. In fact, Australians now are more likely to support the regulation. It’s time for social media to grow up and accept public oversight is coming.”