Australia PM slams Facebook for news blackout, says it is 'arrogant' and 'disappointing'

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday slammed social media giant Facebook for taking an unprecedented move of blocking news content out of its citizen's feeds in the country along with information of health and emergency services. From terming the dramatic escalation by Mark Zuckerberg’s company “arrogant” and “disappointing” to saying big tech giants “don’t run the world”, Morrison posted a length, furious statement on Facebook itself. Australian PM also said that he is in “regular contact” with the leaders of other countries on these issues. 

As the feud between the Australian government and Facebook grew more strenuous over paying for content, social network’s Thursday move was swiftly criticised by news producers, politicians and even human rights advocates. In a protest against the government’s new legislation, it also became evident that the social media giant scrubbed official health pages, emergency safety warnings and even welfare networks along with the news.

Scott Morrison said, “Facebook's actions to unfriend Australia today, cutting off essential information services on health and emergency services, were as arrogant as they were disappointing.”

“These actions will only confirm the concerns that an increasing number of countries are expressing about the behaviour of BigTech companies who think they are bigger than governments and that the rules should not apply to them. They may be changing the world, but that doesn’t mean they run it,” he added before noting that “we will not be intimidated” and calling for the social network to work in cooperation with the Australian government. 

Read - Australia Hits Out At Facebook For News Blackout, Calls It 'wrong, Heavy Handed'

Read - Australia To Roll Out Virus Vaccine From Next Week

Facebook’s move marks split from Google

Thursday’s drastic move directed by Facebook even marks a split from Alphabet Inc-owned Google as both company’s had joint forces together to campaign against the Australian laws. Both Google and Facebook had threatened to cancel its services in Australia. However, search engine giant has instead sealed preemptive deals with several news outlets in the recent days over the looming laws. 

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp was the latest to announce its deal with Google that included that the news outlet would receive “significant payments” from the search engine giant in exchange for providing content for News Showcase account. Facebook had previously said in a statement that the law, which is expected to pass in the Australian parliament within a few days, “fundamentally misunderstands” the relationship between the company and publishers.

Read - Google Publisher Deals In Australia, Facebook Walks

Read - Australia News Media 'large And Small' Discuss Google Deals