Whistleblowers: Meta deliberately took down Pages for hospitals and other Australian institutions in 2021 as a negotiating tactic over the news bargaining law

When Facebook blocked news pages last year to pre-empt Australian legislation that would force it to pay for content …

Wall Street Journal 2022-05-06

Context & Ripple Effects

Meta’s 2021 news blockade had already stopped Australians from sharing or viewing news on Australian news Pages. The whistleblower account reframes that news-sharing ban as potentially broader than a publisher dispute, alleging that hospital and other institutional Pages were included as negotiating leverage.

That distinction matters because the earlier coverage characterized the confrontation as Meta defending control of its platform, rather than simply resisting payments to publishers.

First-order effects

Australian hospitals and other institutions allegedly lost access to Pages during the 2021 blockade, extending the disruption beyond news publishers.
The allegations put Meta’s conduct in the bargaining-law fight at issue, tying Page removals to its negotiating strategy rather than an incidental enforcement error.

Second-order effects

Australian policymakers gain a sharper example of the leverage Meta can exert through platform access, strengthening the case for measures that do not depend on voluntary news-content deals.
Publishers negotiating with Meta must account for the company’s willingness to reduce news availability; Meta later moved to end Facebook News and stop new news deals in Australia and the US.

Third-order effects

Australia’s approach is shifting from negotiated publisher payments toward rules designed to withstand platform withdrawal, as reflected in the planned levy on large tech companies after Meta exited the prior arrangement.
The dispute points to a structural conflict in which governments seek to regulate news compensation while large platforms retain control over the distribution channels institutions and publishers rely on.

The trend: News-compensation policy is becoming a test of whether governments can constrain platforms’ control over access and distribution when voluntary agreements break down.

Discussion

@andymstone Andy Stone on x
@JeffHorwitz No they don't. You have got to be kidding! Ironically, one of the documents accompanying the story shows the categories of pages that were meant to be exempted. And another accompanying document outlines the remediation efforts when the mistake was realized.
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
Internal whistleblower docs and emails in the WSJ report indicate, despite the collateral damage in the blocking by Facebook including of health and government services, Facebook accelerated and went from 50% to 100%. Can you imagine making this decision? Are you human? /4 https:…
@bethblackshire Elizabeth Blackshire on x
Facebook blocked hospitals and charities in Australia last year. The company said it was an accident. Whistleblowers say it was a negotiating tactic. https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ
@juliapowles Julia Powles on x
We are so accustomed to seeing Facebook act with impunity. But this case is singular. We need to analyse criminal culpability. The team: - was instructed not to make written records - signed bespoke NDAs - disabled typical remedial & preventative measures https://whistlebloweraid…
@donie @donie on x
Facebook wants you to believe this was done in “error.” Deplorable stuff. https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ
@stalruth Stuart Rutherford on x
ironically the only time facebook were in the right it is a shit fucking law and the media couldn't call it out because they stand to benefit from the inversion of the normal relationship between social platform and media https://twitter.com/...
@francesmao Frances Mao on x
Huge story from @wsj overnight: Facebook deliberately included govt/emergency service pages when it shut off news in Australia in Feb 2021 “to exert maximum negotiating leverage over the Australian parliament”. https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@donie @donie on x
Facebook is wildly incompetent, we know, but to suggest they couldn't distinguish news pages from emergency services. Come on.
@anthony Anthony DeRosa on x
“We landed exactly where we wanted to — and that was only possible because this team was genius enough to pull it off in zero time.” - Campbell Brown https://www.wsj.com/...
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
I'm reminded of the lack of press follow-up with Facebook on this last year. I wonder if anyone in that camp reflects differently having read the WSJ report above. /8 https://twitter.com/...
@wbaidlaw @wbaidlaw on x
We were proud to help bring these shocking strong-arm tactics to light. Exposing these practices will make it harder for Facebook to hold other nations hostage in the future. https://twitter.com/...
@anildash @anildash on x
Sheryl leaning into cutting off access to hospitals in order to threaten people's lives over regulations Facebook doesn't like. https://twitter.com/...
@drewpusateri Drew Pusateri on x
an endlessly frustrating part of working at Meta was that the company was treated as a pariah that should be disbanded/destroyed *except* when it was more convenient to say we were an irreplaceable force for public good denying the citizenry access to critical info https://twitte…
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
hi andy. news flash. you lost all credibility when you misled the press on the breach of trust with facebook's data spilling into the app ecosystem. it's remarkable to me you still get to play this role. and still want to play it. it makes me wonder. https://twitter.com/...
@manjusrii Belinda Barnet on x
Since the code passed parliament, Facebook have also been negotiating in bad faith or not negotiating at all with some outlets. I've been saying this since the code was passed: we need to designate them. Stop assuming Facebook will behave responsibly or ethically. It won't.
@aaschapiro Avi Asher-Schapiro on x
Who are you going to believe—the Facebook whistleblower who is risking their career to go public about FB deliberately interfered w/hospitals in Australia as part of hard-nosed negations w/authorities... or the company which is saying, it didn't happen? https://www.wsj.com/...
@jasonpjason Jason Prado Jason on x
over time most people will come to agree that the way the PRC has regulated internet platforms is more compatible with democracy and freedom than the way the US and its clients have https://twitter.com/...
@anthony Anthony DeRosa on x
Facebook blocked hospitals and charities in Australia last year. The company said it was an accident. Whistleblowers say it was a negotiating tactic and internally it was called a “masterstroke” $FB https://www.wsj.com/...
@zaidjilani @zaidjilani on x
Facebook deliberately shut down government and emergency services pages as part of its lobbying campaign in Australia. If Facebook is just a private company whose behavior has no impact on the public or government, why would they use this tactic? https://twitter.com/...
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
pst Jeff, it's not a “link tax.” that's google and facebook's preferred label for it. there are no fees for links. only companies have to pay anything are two found to have market dominance and an imbalance in bargaining power from competition investigation. nice scoop today.
@jeffhorwitz Jeff Horwitz on x
Facebook was intentionally “overinclusive” last year when it blockaded pages during in response to a proposed Australian “link tax” law. Internal docs show it treated the takedown of hospital and emergency service pages as acceptable collateral damage. https://www.wsj.com/...
@jeffhorwitz Jeff Horwitz on x
It's fair to note that FB worked to clean up the errors on a case-by-case basis after the rollout — blocking public service pages wasn't desired, as the story says. But changes weren't undone after problems were detected and the operation was viewed as an overall success. https:/…
@mikeelgan @mikeelgan on x
Is it possible for a corporation to be a sociopath? https://twitter.com/...
@sophiemcneill Sophie McNeill on x
This is absolutely outrageous behaviour from @Facebook if true At the time the company denied to @hrw that this was a deliberate strategy to deprive Australians of essential news & services This new information is very alarming @Meta https://twitter.com/...
@asymco Horace Dediu on x
RT @counternotions: Meta. Verse. ↓ https://twitter.com/...
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
And yes, Sheryl Sandberg, Mark Zuckerberg, Campbell Brown celebrating their shakedown on a false pretense rather than the fact they deliberately made a decision that made it more difficult for a large # of Australians to receive news and health information during a pandemic. /6 h…
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
this blocking of health services brings back memories of reports a few years earlier that Facebook “news” lead Campbell Brown promised Australian publishers they would be in hospice if they didn't “work with them.” /3 https://twitter.com/...
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
Remarkable timing. /5 https://twitter.com/...
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
The timing was terrible and the reports indicated Facebook went broad with its intentional blocking knowing there would be collateral damage (and there was) which happened to health services and news organizations at a very sensitive time in the pandemic. /2 https://twitter.com/.…
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
News flash. Facebook, and its unchanged leadership, are every bit as awful of a company as you can imagine. Whistleblower docs just dropped in WSJ report on its strategy to block news during a global pandemic to limit hit to profits if it had less market power over industry. /1 h…
@jesselehrich Jesse Lehrich on x
WOW, this is low even for @Meta. according to whistleblowers, when Australia moved to make FB share profits from news aggregation with journalists, they *deliberately* cut off access to hospitals, emergency services & charities as a negotiating tactic. https://www.wsj.com/...
@lauraedelson2 Laura Edelson on x
This is outrageous, and it's not the first time that Facebook seems to have lied to government, and those lies are only revealed when whistleblowers risk their careers. This is a serious regulatory problem if companies just lie in required disclosures. https://www.wsj.com/...
@reaganbrad Brad Reagan on x
When Facebook switched off thousands of pages in Australia last year ahead of pending legislation, it called the widespread blocking “inadvertent.” Now whistleblowers are saying the move was all about negotiating leverage. https://www.wsj.com/...

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