Government emails shed new light on Meta's Australian standoff
A string of documents obtained by Capital Brief provide the most detailed account yet of what the government has called on the ACCC to provide and how, as it considers its next steps in Australia's standoff with Meta.
Social media behemoth Meta only informed the federal government of its decision to abandon multi-million dollar deals with Australian news publishers in writing minutes before it confirmed the move publicly in a blog post that blindsided the media industry.
Emails and a series of other documents obtained by Capital Brief under freedom of information laws provide the most detailed account yet of how the government responded in the immediate aftermath of Meta's announcement that it would not renew deals with news publishers. The emails also underscore Meta's hard nosed resolve in refusing to renegotiate the deals, which are estimated to have injected between $70 million and $100 million per year into the local media industry.
Meta confirmed in a blog post at midday on 1 March that it would shutter its Facebook News tab, which aggregated news content, and no longer enter into commercial deals with news publishers. Only seven minutes earlier, at 11:53am Meta's regional policy director Mia Garlick emailed communications minister Michelle Rowland with a preview of the blog post and other key points raised at a meeting a day earlier.
“We will honour existing financial agreements under our current terms of service but will not renew commercial deals for Facebook News Tab or news video moving forward,” Garlick wrote to Rowland in the email.
