Tony Abbott says big tech censorship must be addressed

Former PM Tony Abbott has criticised big tech for censoring dissenting political views after the IPA had a stoush with tech giant Meta over a video about The Voice.

Tony Abbott pictured speaking at the CPAC Conference earlier this month. Picture: NewsWire / Monique Harmer.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott says there’s a “serious problem” with big tech censorship, which is silencing certain political views.

Mr Abbott’s comments come after tech company Meta (Facebook’s parent company) recently had a dispute with Australian think-tank, the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), over a video that they released discussing their concerns with the federal government’s proposal for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

Mr Abbott, speaking on a new IPA podcast episode to be released on Monday, said the limitations placed on free speech by big tech was a live problem – not only in Australia, but globally. “There is a serious problem with politically correct censorship by big tech and this is just another illustration of it,” Mr Abbott said in the podcast.

“Obviously, former president Trump was a highly contentious figure and said and did many things that people could quite rightly object to, but the idea that Trump could be banned and remained banned from some social media platforms is bizarre.

“For all of its faults and failings, he is a former president of the US and former leader of the free world, why should he be banned when the people that run Iran, a brutal theocracy, are permitted? It’s just wrong.

“And again, it’s a part of the politically correct double standards that we see rampant across society right now.”

The IPA recently posted a four-minute video on Facebook “Race has no place: IPA research video on Indigenous Voice,” featuring CLP senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, Australian Catholic University postdoctoral research fellow Anthony Dillon and Liberal senator James McGrath.

The think-tank attempted to pay a fee to promote the video on the social media site so the content could gain more traction, however, it was prevented from doing so by Facebook, ostensibly because the IPA neglected to run a “paid for by” transparency disclaimer on the clip.

The IPA was told in an automated message from Facebook that it could not promote the video because “it doesn’t comply with our ads about social issues, elections or elections policy”.

The IPA disputed the decision and said that they were not told specifically that they must run a “paid for by” disclaimer, however, several days later Facebook temporarily allowed them to promote the video without a disclaimer being attached.

Facebook later reinstalled the ban to stop the video from being promoted without a “paid for by” tag.

A Meta spokeswoman conceded the ban that was lifted for a short period was an error.

“This ad was removed because the organisation posting it did not include the necessary transparency disclaimer, which is required for ads about social issues, elections or politics,” she said.

“The ad was live for a short period of time in error, but was removed as soon as we realised it was missing the disclaimer.

“At the scale at which we ­operate, we know that sometimes mistakes will be made.”

In an article published on The Guardian’s website on Friday, the outlet criticised the “IPA warriors” and said “if they just read the fine print” the video could have run – however there was no mention of Meta’s “mistake”.

The IPA’s deputy executive director Daniel Wild said Facebook’s error was concerning and they did not believe their video ­required a disclaimer.

“The admission of error by Facebook is significant and reinforces everything the IPA has been saying,” he said.

“If a multibillion-dollar behemoth like Facebook cannot even follow their own rules, then they cannot expect mainstream Australians to follow those rules.

“The IPA did not believe our content required a disclaimer as we were communicating our research on racial equality.

“Facebook and big tech must ensure that their platforms are free and fair and guarantee the freedom of speech of all Australians,” Mr Wild said.