In March last year, Australia’s legislation required technology platforms such as Google and Facebook to negotiate with news organizations to pay for news content on their platforms. According to reports, Facebook prepared ahead of time to introduce an algorithm, but a technical error affected pages outside the Australian publisher.
According to reports, Australia has a vaccination program but affected by the algorithm, the vaccination-related pages of the Australian government and health services were blocked. Facebook didn’t notify the page before it was affected, and the page was taken down before the application process was ready, which was not in line with the process.
The whistleblower filed documents and testimony with U.S. and Canadian agencies, alleging that Facebook did so to pressure lawmakers who voted on the law.
Facebook apologized, said it had fixed the error and responded that it was not a negotiating tactic and that it was using a broad algorithm because the law doesn’t specify what is considered news.
