Facebook cannot be trusted, says Peter Costello

Future Fund and Nine Network chair Peter Costello has launched a blistering attack on Facebook’s threats to shut down local news.

Future Fund and Nine Network chair Peter Costello. Picture: Eamon Gallagher

Future Fund and Nine Network chair Peter Costello has launched a blistering attack on Facebook’s threats to shut down local news, saying the tech platform would become a “great repository for fake news” and the company can’t be trusted.

“If Facebook doesn’t want to carry reputable Australian news, what is it going to carry? Disreputable Australian news,” Mr Costello said on Wednesday.

“Facebook says they don’t want to carry news from media organisations in Australia where there is fact checking, where people stand behind it, where they can be sued for libel.

“It will become a great repository for people creating fake news out of China, Russia, or Australia, or wherever. You won’t be able to believe anything you read on Facebook.”

The former federal treasurer added that Facebook’s threats on Tuesday laid bare the company’s true colours.

“It was really illustrated to me where Facebook is coming from, much more important than whether the news is reputable or reliable to them, is how much money they make out of it, and that distinguishes it in my view between Facebook and a real news organisation,” he said.

“A real organisation has to stand behind its product, and for that reason it wants to be accurate, and for that reason you can actually trust it.”

According to Mr Costello, if Facebook was to remove news from its platform in Australia, it would further undermine faith in the electoral process, given the rampant misinformation and conspiracy theories already on the platform. He said Facebook had already influenced elections, particularly in the US.

“It has been going on in the United States for the last four years. (Facebook) pumps media out which is not verified and not fact checked … I saw today the government says it is not going to be intimidated by Facebook and nor should it be intimidated by Facebook.”

The comments came just hours after Nine chief executive Hugh Marks called Facebook’s threats an “abuse of monopoly power” on Wednesday.

“There’s only one social platform, it’s a monopoly, and we haven’t been able to negotiate a commercial outcome because of that monopoly position,” he said.