News Corp boss Robert Thomson says Facebook is ‘damaging communities’
News Corp’s global chief Robert Thomson condemns Meta for its decision to end a commitment to pay media outlets for material they provide for Facebook.
News Corp global chief executive Robert Thomson has taken aim at tech giant Meta following its decision to end its commitment to pay media outlets for the material they provide for Facebook.
Meta, parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, announced on Friday it was walking away from the payment-for-content deals, which are worth close to $250m a year for Australia’s news publishers.
Speaking at a media and telecom conference in San Francisco on Tuesday (AEST), Mr Thomson said Meta’s move showed not just a blatant disregard for the Australian community, but a lack of concern for the level of misinformation on social media.
“The swirl or maelstrom of muck out there is disfiguring communities, it’s having a profoundly negative impact on a lot of young people,” Mr Thomson said.
“And unless you have … you know, what is the most contemporary form of factual information? Well, it’s journalism, it captures the first frame of history.
“And to be honest, that’s why the Facebook decision in Australia is so disappointing. It’s a company that talks about community.
“We have a certain amount of self-interest, but it’s more about the Australian community, when you look at the damage that’s been done to communities.”
In its statement on Friday, Meta justified its decision not to renew its existing payment-for-content deals, struck in 2021, by claiming “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”.
But that figure fails to account for the changing habits of news consumers, who are increasingly watching video and reels as part of their news diet – a fact not accounted for in Meta’s “3 per cent” claim.
“It’s disappointing when you look at Facebook suggesting, for example, that 3 per cent of usage relates to news,” Mr Thomson said. “That’s obviously a fiction, a preposterous figure. I mean, how much discussion is there around news?
“You have the core news and then, I can tell you, 100 per cent of the contemporary factual information on Facebook is news.
“And so those are the numbers that, really, Facebook should be focused on, as well as being focused on its responsibility to all Australians.”
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland and Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones on Monday wrote to dozens of media outlets across Australia, reaffirming the federal government’s invitation to news publishers to submit their concerns about Meta’s decision not to renew its payment-for-content deals.
News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller told The Australian this week that 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.”
Mr Miller also warned that Meta’s move wouldn’t just affect the media industry.
“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.”
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