Blunder Down Under
This week: Facebook, Google, and the Australian government rumble – and everyone loses except Rupert Murdoch..... Tech CEOs prepare for another grilling on Capitol Hill, the first since their platforms helped facilitate the violent insurrection on [checks notes] Capitol Hill..... Health care workers, and a new 'Latino Anti-Disinformation Lab,' surge capacity on the frontlines of the infodemic, and more.
BLUNDER DOWN UNDER
This week in Australia, Facebook really took the old “no news is good news” adage to heart. But let’s take a step back.
So, broadly speaking, Facebook and Google have helped crush local news. They’ve siphoned ad revenue away from publishers while aggregating their content with negligible compensation – and thousands upon thousands of journalism jobs have been lost. This is bad for democracy. So publishers and governments alike have started fighting back, demanding the tech giants share a sliver of their profits with the news industry they’ve starved.
This all came to a head in Australia this week, as a revenue-sharing mandate careened toward becoming law. One unfortunate drawback of this particular piece of legislation is that it happens to be… bad? The intent is good – we’re proud to work with groups that have outlined thoughtful proposals to this end, like Free Press’s targeted-ad tax for a Public Interest Media Endowment, and Public Knowledge’s Superfund for the Internet.
But the Australian bill aims to charge Facebook and Google every time a news link is posted on their platforms. It says they must cut deals with each publisher on that basis, or enter forced arbitration. It says they must alert publishers 28 days before any changes to their news ranking algorithms – which change second-by-second. And it favors mass media conglomerates like Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. rather than actually directing money to journalists, independent media, and news-gathering.
Nevertheless, Facebook managed to steal the show with its villainry... In the dead of the night – days before the law even passed – Facebook banned *all* links to news in Australia. There were many ways they could’ve underscored the bill’s flaws in ongoing negotiations, but instead they opted to summarily strip the platform of authoritative information in the middle of a pandemic (and swept up a bunch of emergency service pages in the process). Facebook was ostensibly trying to prove a point; but the only point they proved is how much societal harm they're willing to inflict to protect their bottom line. Australia was not impressed, and the rest of the world was taking notes.
Washington Post: Facebook’s brazen attempt to crush regulations in Australia may backfire
The Australian: Fakebook’ shows all it cares about is profit, not people
The Guardian: Misinformation runs rampant as Facebook says it may take a week before it unblocks some pages
Reuters: Canada vows to be next country to go after Facebook to pay for news
Business Insider: Facebook took the nuclear option in Australia. It may be on a collision course with at least 7 other countries.
THE BOYS ARE (ALMOST) BACK IN TOWN
This week, it was announced that Mark, Jack, and Sundar will be coming to Washington to testify before the House next month. (One day, Congress will learn about the existence of YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki…)
What could those three, famously uncontroversial, possibly be coming to testify about? Oh, the usual—just the insurrection at the Capitol fomented on their platforms, ongoing promotion of anti-vaxx disinformation, etc.
Washington Post: House to grill Facebook, Google, Twitter CEOs as Washington seeks to crack down on disinformation, antitrust
The Verge: Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, and Jack Dorsey will appear at March misinfo hearing
This will be the third time in six months that the tech CEOs have been hauled before Congress to reaffirm that their companies are totally still forces for good in the world. Luckily, their pal Jeff Bezos lives locally and could probably let them stay in one of his eleven bedrooms.
FRONTLINES OF THE INFODEMIC
No, the coronavirus vaccines will not implant a microchip into you so Bill Gates can control your brain. That’s just one of countless anti-vaxx conspiracy theories circulating widely in various communities. Thankfully, efforts to push back on these pernicious narratives are expanding.
First – as if our heroic frontline health care workers hadn’t already done enough – a growing coalition of doctors and nurses have been spending their ‘off’ hours organizing online to fight vaccine hesitancy and defend one another when anti-vaxxers stoop to harassing advocates (which they do quite regularly). And second – this week, Voto Latino and Media Matters announced a new partnership that will bring much-needed countering Spanish-language disinformation.
POLITICO: Doctors bring the fight to anti-vaxxers online | Health care workers are organizing online networks to promote Covid shots, strategically aiming to drown out vaccine opponents active on those sites.
NBC News: Liberal groups launch 'Latino Anti-Disinformation Lab' to combat Covid, election messaging | Voto Latino and Media Matters are collaborating with a former DNC chairman to combat political and health misinformation aimed at Hispanic communities.
POTPOURRI
Wall Street Journal: Parler Resurfaces Online After Monthlong Service Disruption
Business Insider: Facebook's news ban heightens the risk of misinformation and conspiracies spreading in Australia, critics warn
Axios: Audio takes off during the pandemic
Bloomberg: Citadel’s Griffin, Robinhood CEO to Testify at GameStop Hearings
TechCrunch: Following backlash, WhatsApp to roll out in-app banner to better explain its privacy update