Facebook’s Australia news ban slammed by furious PM who tells ‘arrogant’ tech giant ‘we won’t be intimidated’
FACEBOOK has been blasted for its "utter abuse of power and control" after banning news on its platform in Australia.
Furious Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the country would not be "intimidated" by the tech giant's actions "to unfriend Australia".
"Their push for end-to-end encryption will make it easier for paedophiles to share child sexual exploitation material."
End-to-end encryption - already used by WhatsApp - means only the people communicating can see their messages.
Dutton said he fears that thousands of paedophiles will never be caught under the new secret messaging system.
'COMPLETE OUTRAGE'
"I think it's a complete outrage. I think there is a moral obligation on people like Mark Zuckerberg to step up and do the right thing," he said.
"At the moment they're facilitating these criminals, these networks, these organised criminal syndicates who are exploiting and destroying the lives of young children and we need to call it out."
A Facebook spokesman told Daily Mail Australia it has "zero tolerance" for behaviour which exploits children.
"We work closely with law enforcement agencies in Australia and around the world to report and remove harmful content," he said.
"Facebook leads the industry in combating child abuse online and we'll continue to do so on our private messaging services."
Facebook's move to ban news on its platform in Australia comes as politicians are considering forcing digital businesses to reach paid-for-news agreements with media companies.
The draft legislation being looked at could create a so-called News Media Bargaining Code.
On Wednesday, William Easton, managing director at Facebook Australia and New Zealand, said the "proposed law fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content".
"It has left us facing a stark choice: attempt to comply with a law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or stop allowing news content on our services in Australia," Easton said.
"With a heavy heart, we are choosing the latter."
'ALARMING'
Amnesty International described Facebook's decision to block news sites as "extremely concerning".
Tim O’Connor, Amnesty International Australia campaigner, said: "It is extremely concerning that a private company is willing to control access to information that people rely on.
"Facebook’s action starkly demonstrates why allowing one company to exert such dominant power over our information ecosystem threatens human rights.
"It’s alarming that community support groups, emergency services and charities have had their content blocked."
He added: "Facebook’s willingness to block credible news sources also stands in sharp distinction to the company’s poor track record in addressing the spread of hateful content and disinformation on the platform."
Deals have been done elsewhere to enable search engines to pay media companies for news, as Australian politicians debated amended legislation to create the code.
It comes after Rupert Murdoch's News Corp announced a global agreement with tech giant Google that will see them pay for stories.
The ground-breaking deal by the ultimate owner of The Sun and The Times will see the media company contribute to Google News Showcase, an update to its news search platform.
Easton said Facebook and other US technology businesses like Google have "fundamentally different relationships with news".
"Google Search is inextricably intertwined with news and publishers do not voluntarily provide their content," he said.
"On the other hand, publishers willingly choose to post news on Facebook, as it allows them to sell more subscriptions, grow their audiences and increase advertising revenue."
Last year Facebook generated around 5.1 billion "free referrals" to Australian publishers, Mr Easton claimed, worth an estimated £227 million.
He said the social media giant receives a "minimal" business gain from news, which makes up less than 4 percent of content users see on their news feed.
"Journalism is important to a democratic society, which is why we build dedicated, free tools to support news organisations around the world in innovating their content for online audiences," he said.
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Mr Easton claimed the proposed legislation seeks to "penalise" Facebook for "content it didn't take or ask for".
He said the company is prepared to launch Facebook News in Australia to "significantly increase our investments with local publishers", but would only do so "with the right rules in place".