Meta’s decision to stop paying news publishers for content will be catastrophic for Australia, says News Corp boss Michael Miller
Tech giant Meta’s decision to cease paying news publishers for the content they provide will have a catastrophic flow-on effect on most industries, warns News Corp boss Michael Miller.
Tech giant Meta’s decision to cease paying news publishers for the content that they provide for the company’s social media platforms will have a catastrophic flow-on effect on most industries, News Corp Australasia’s executive chairman Michael Miller has warned.
Any business that relies on any of Meta’s platforms – Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp – could find their business model up-ended at any point, unless the Albanese government puts a brake on the market power of the tech titans, he said.
On Friday, Meta announced it would not renew its existing deals to pay Australian publishers for their news content that features on Facebook when those agreements, signed in 2021, expire later this year.
Those deals are worth upwards of $250m a year to Australian news publishers.
If Meta refuses to pay for the news content it uses, hundreds of jobs could be lost across the media industry, and smaller titles in rural and regional areas could face closure, exacerbating the problem of “news deserts” in local communities.
“Australia must not surrender its leadership in being a country that is prepared to stand up to tech giants,” Mr Miller said.
“The world is watching what is happening in Australia at the moment.”
The News Corp boss also accused Meta of flouting e-safety laws.
“Meta believes it is above our government and above our laws. It has no care for communities.
“Not only does it take a lot of money out of Australia, it enables … online scams and facilitates misinformation,” he said.
“Despite Meta’s claims of trying to stamp out scams and the like, it keeps on recurring.
“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.
“It’s not just doing damage to the media industry, it’s doing damage to our democracy.
“And that is where all Australians and all Australian businesses should be greatly concerned.”
On Friday, Anthony Albanese, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland and Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones – who has oversight of the news media bargaining code, against which the content-for payment deals were struck in 2021 – indicated they would do everything in the government’s power to force Meta to the bargaining table to renegotiate the deals with media companies, as they are legally required to do if they are designated under the code.
“We’re very concerned with this (Meta’s) announcement,” the Prime Minister said.
“It is absolutely critical that media is able to function and be properly funded.
“We will consider what options we have available and we will talk to the media companies as well.
“The idea that one company can profit from others’ investment – not just investment in capital but investment in people, investment in journalism – is unfair. That’s not the Australian way.”
The federal government will this week seek advice from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, Treasury, and media stakeholders before it decides on what steps to take against Meta.
One of the reasons that the tech titan has given for its decision not to renew its deals with media companies is its claim that fewer people are consuming news content on Facebook.
“We know that people don’t come to Facebook for news and political content – they come to connect with people and discover new opportunities, passions and interests,” read a statement from Meta on Friday.
“As we previously shared in 2023, news makes up less than 3 per cent of what people around the world see in their Facebook feed, and is a small part of the Facebook experience for the vast majority of people.”
That’s untrue, Mr Miller said.
“The amount of news being consumed on Facebook is greater than it was three years ago,” he told The Australian.
“Meta are the masters of misinformation. They enable others to do it and they practise it themselves.
“These businesses were built on the back of news. It’s only in recent years they have added more functionality, and more information, but news is still a key driver for them.
“News consumption isn’t just text – it’s video, it’s increasingly Instagram reels, and so on,” Mr Miller said.
“The irony is that Meta has used media as a way to grow their business. Not only has Meta taken advertising dollars away from publishers, it has positioned itself as an essential medium to reach audiences, and they have taken (others’) content to build their business.
“It’s inevitable, sadly, that we won’t have as robust a media industry in Australia if this isn’t resolved. It’s not just diversity of media, it’s also the quality of stories we can tell.
“Our democracy is being challenged. There could be fewer journalists, and there could be titles that close, as a result.
“That’s why the government needs to see beyond commercial terms, and consider the broader, longer-term impact this will have.”
On Sunday, opposition communications spokesman David Coleman said: “Meta must pay, and they will only pay if the government forces them to.
“There’s no value in the government making little protests – they have to actually solve the problem. We made Meta pay when the Coalition was in government. The question is whether Anthony Albanese is strong enough to achieve the same result for Australian journalism.”
Queensland Premier Steven Miles also took aim at the tech giants and their unchecked market power.
“They are making trillions of dollars and they do not care about the communities that they are in,” Mr Miles said.
“They don’t care about the importance of local reporting.
“They don’t care about the crimes that they promote on their platforms – they are literally profiting off those things.
“It’s about time we had a really good look at the power of these social media companies, how much money they’re making here, and how little they care about Australians.”
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