Australia’s access to news through Facebook and Instagram is back under threat, as the Australian Government has its back to the wall with Meta pulling all the strings.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese may want to call Meta ‘arrogant’ and want social media giants to take responsibility for people being cruel to each other, but it is journalists and voters who will pay the price for their chest-beating.
Australian news outlets have already felt the impact from news being downgraded in the algorithm so it shows up less in people’s feeds. New England Times has seen daily Facebook traffic drop by a third.
The Local and Independent News Association, LINA, of which New England Times is a member, has warned that designation will be most devastating on small on independent media outlets, and the Australian public will bear the brunt of the impact.
And last month, hundreds of media jobs through Nine news are the first casualty of the growing saga, and its expected there is more to come with Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) refusing to pay for news and journalism content in Australia.
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, Deputy Chair of the Joint Select Committee into Social Media and Australian Society, commented at the time on the devastating impact to our nation’s media industry.
“My thoughts are with all Nine journalists, media workers, and their families today for this devastating news.”
“On the same day that up to 200 media workers at Nine have been told they don’t have a job due to declining advertising revenue, the Parliament heard concerning evidence from the Meta executives who refuse to pay for news and journalism from companies like Nine.”
“Meta is trying to blackmail the Parliament by refusing to rule out banning all news on their platforms Instagram and Facebook, should they be Designated under the News Media Bargaining Code.”
But is it blackmail, or just honesty?
What’s going on in Canada
The threat is to ban all news on Meta platforms, just like they have in Canada.
Australia survived the first Meta news ban back in February 2021. The short-lived ban led to Meta signing a three-year contents deal with news organisation which are due to expire this year.
If they can’t strike a deal, what does that look like for Australian media, especially us little guys?
As well as a journalist for the New England Times, I am currently a radio reporter currently living in British Columbia in Canada where my family have relocated for a short period of time.
Over here I work for a growing radio company with similar values to New England Times, committed to delivering local news to local people. And we have no access to Facebook or Instagram to share the news we report.
In August 2023, Meta banned news across Canada. One day here, gone the next. With it, they shut down all news related Facebook pages.
For my company, that is over 20 Facebook pages and thousands of followers gone.
And we needed to rebuild from scratch.
Almost a year later and we are nowhere near building our presence or following back up to where it was. All that time, money and effort building our brand, to have it gone based on a decision we didn’t make, and had no say in.
And it’s not just Canadian news that is banned. I also can’t see or share the stories on the New England Times’ Facebook Page from here. Including the stories I write.
The reality
A recent study by the Media Ecosystem Observatory — a collaboration between McGill University and the University of Toronto — offers an initial glimpse into the effect of the Meta news ban.
National news outlets lost about 64 per cent of the engagement previously generated by users on their Facebook pages, the preliminary research shows.
Local news outlets lost about 85 per cent of their Facebook engagement, the study says, and almost half of all local news outlets stopped posting on Facebook entirely in the four months following the ban.
Some outlets have gone dark entirely.
And while news outlets suffered, Meta seemed unaffected.
Ultimately, Meta doesn’t care – content is content and they aren’t going to pay for one kind of content when they get all other kinds for free.
Can Australian media survive what Canada is currently going through? I truly hope we don’t have to try to.
New England Times is currently the recipient of a Walkley Meta grant.
Something going on in your part of the region you think people should know about? Send us a news tip or email newsdesk@netimes.com.au.