Media bosses Michael Miller, Mike Sneesby and Jeff Howard unite to call out social harms of Meta

The Australian government has a moral obligation to take immediate and decisive action against the ‘toxic force’ of the tech giants, warns News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller.

News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller in Canberra on Friday. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The federal government has a moral obligation to take immediate and decisive action against the “toxic force” of the tech giants, whose social media platforms continue to spread damaging untruths at the expense of genuine news and information.

The dire warning was issued on Friday by the chief executive of News Corp Australasia, Michael Miller, who fronted a parliamentary inquiry into social media alongside Mike Sneesby and Jeff Howard, the respective CEOs of Nine Entertainment and Seven West Media.

The trio of media executives urged the Albanese government to bring Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to heel by “designating” the trillion-dollar tech company under the terms of Australia’s news media bargaining code.

Designating Meta would force it to negotiate “payment for news content” deals with Australian media outlets, or face fines of up to 10 per cent of its local revenue.

Earlier this year, Meta walked away from negotiations to renew its existing deals with local news media outlets, justifying its decision by claiming – falsely – that fewer people were seeking out news content on Facebook.

Mr Miller on Friday said Meta’s refusal to negotiate with media companies for a fair level of compensation for the tech giant’s use of news outlets’ content was akin to blackmail.

“Right now, Meta is preparing to blackmail not just us in the news industry, but also you as a government,” the News Corp boss told the inquiry.

“By refusing to renew its agreement to pay for news content, Meta is daring Australia to apply the laws this parliament was united in passing three years ago.

“It is getting ready to say: ‘If you dare designate us under the media bargaining code, we will punish you by blocking Australian access to local news’.

“This is an illustration of the way they behave. They don’t negotiate, they dictate.”

Mr Miller’s call for the government to “move quickly” on the matter was echoed by Mr Sneesby and Mr Howard, both of whom were in favour of Meta being designated under the code.

“Aussie media companies are not looking for a free kick. We just want to compete on a level playing field,” Mr Sneesby said.

Mr Howard said: “The combination of an unfair playing field, continuing ad market leakage and non-designation will only have one outcome: the reduction in our ability to invest in … news content. So it is now time to act.

“Australia should not acquiesce to the demands of the digital platforms. They should be made to play by our rules. Other multinational industries are compelled to comply with all manner of law and regulation … to trade here; it is time for the social media exemption to be addressed.”

Later on Friday, Australian Community Media managing director Anthony Kendall told the inquiry Meta’s decision to walk away from negotiations to pay for news content would create more “news deserts” across Australia, robbing communities of independent, credible and trusted voices.

“Meta doesn’t care about any of this. It doesn’t care about local communities. It doesn’t care about democracy and it doesn’t care about the safety and wellbeing of our children,” he said. “We don’t think it’s an overstatement to say Meta, and other social platforms, are tearing the fabric of our communities apart … destroying a generation of our youth.”

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland on Friday said the government would “follow the code process to the letter”, before deciding whether to force Meta back to the bargaining table.

“The removal of news from social media platforms will be deeply harming to Australian democracy – that is a fact, because what it will be replaced with is not trusted news sources that are subject to ethics and certain journalistic standards, but that digital detritus where mis(information) and disinformation is left to breed unattended and unregulated.”