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Jail threat for social media execs · The Front

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Thursday, June sixth Anthony Albanezi and Peter Dutton have
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  Speaker 1: put on a rare show of unity. They've slammed the
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  Speaker 1: Greens in Parliament, saying they're fueling tension and division over
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: conflict in the Middle East. The PM says pro Palestinian
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: protesters targeting electorate offices like his in Sydney's Marrickville are
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  Speaker 1: undermining their cause and preventing others from participating in democracy.
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  Speaker 1: Economic growth is all but ground to a halt, slumping
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  Speaker 1: to its slowest pace in three decades outside the COVID pandemic.
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  Speaker 1: Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Wednesday high interest rates are
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  Speaker 1: to blame for the slowdown and he doesn't expect things
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  Speaker 1: to improve before the end of the year. Those stories
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  Speaker 1: alive right now at The Australian dot Com. The boss
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  Speaker 1: of News Corp Australia, Michael Miller, wants the federal government
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  Speaker 1: to pass so called social license laws that would expose
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  Speaker 1: social media executives to criminal penalties if they breach Australian law. Miller,
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  Speaker 1: whose company publishes Mastheads, from the Herald Sun to Vogue Australia,
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  Speaker 1: The Australian and the front says if the tech giants
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  Speaker 1: don't comply, they should be expelled from the Australian market.
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  Speaker 2: That's today's story.
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  Speaker 3: My name is Francis Hogan.
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  Speaker 4: I used to work at Facebook.
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  Speaker 1: In October twenty twenty one, the worst nightmare of executives
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  Speaker 1: at the world's most powerful social media platform, Meta came true.
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  Speaker 1: A whistleblower, Francis Hogan went public in the most dramatic
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  Speaker 1: possible way. This is Hagen addressing the United States Senate.
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  Speaker 3: I joined Facebook because I think Facebook has the potential
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  Speaker 3: to bring out the best inness. But I'm here today
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  Speaker 3: because I believe Facebook's products home children, stoke division and
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  Speaker 3: weaken our democracy. The company's leadership knows how to make
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  Speaker 3: Facebook and Instagram saver, but won't make the necessary changes
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  Speaker 3: because they have put their astronomical profits before people.
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  Speaker 1: METS founder Mark Zuckerberg said Hagen's claim it puts profit
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  Speaker 1: before people was untrue. On Wednesday, at the National Press
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  Speaker 1: Club in Canberra, News Corp Australasia boss Michael Miller took
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  Speaker 1: up the fight.
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  Speaker 5: These tech giants, especially the social media networks such as Meta,
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  Speaker 5: TikTok and x operate outside our legal system.
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  Speaker 6: It's time for them to play by our rules.
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  Speaker 5: They have deep pockets, they are highly litigious, but that
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  Speaker 5: is no reason why they should not be subject to
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  Speaker 5: Australian law, and we should seek to enforce Australian law.
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  Speaker 5: The words social license describe the permission companies have to
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  Speaker 5: operate within a society. The tech monopolies should also be
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  Speaker 5: made to pay a license. This social license would be
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  Speaker 5: a package of laws and requirements the tech monopolies would
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  Speaker 5: need to meet if they want access to Australian consumers.
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  Speaker 1: Miller recommended a suite of new legislation designed to keep
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  Speaker 1: the tech platforms accountable for the content and ideas they amplify.
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  Speaker 1: They include making it easier for users to contact the
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  Speaker 1: platforms directly, breaking up the digital advertising monopoly, honoring the
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  Speaker 1: news media Bargaining Code, and importantly.
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  Speaker 5: Penalties that incorporate criminal sanctions for companies and their executives
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  Speaker 5: that agree to the license that then break the rules,
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  Speaker 5: and the power to ultimately block access to our country
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  Speaker 5: and our people if they refuse to play by our rules.
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  Speaker 1: Miller said part of the problem is that fines don't.
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  Speaker 5: Work because on social media, bad behavior is good for business.
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  Speaker 6: The social media giants.
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  Speaker 5: They profit from evil videos, They profit from bullying, They
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  Speaker 5: profit from online con artists.
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  Speaker 6: They profit from glamorizing eating disorders.
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  Speaker 5: In the words of a British father who lost their
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  Speaker 5: child to suicide, they monetize misery in metas case, according
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  Speaker 5: to a recent report in the UK's Sunday Times magazine,
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  Speaker 5: that profit is a staggering one hundred and thirty six
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  Speaker 5: million US dollars every single day.
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  Speaker 6: The a Triple C has ruled that for.
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  Speaker 5: Media companies, Meta is an unav avoidable trading partner.
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  Speaker 1: That means the media companies have no choice but to
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  Speaker 1: use the social media platforms to get their journalism to Australians.
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  Speaker 1: That's because all our habits have changed so much. More
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  Speaker 1: and more we live in our social feeds now, instead
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  Speaker 1: of tuning into the six pm news or swinging past
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  Speaker 1: the news agency to pick up the paper. In order
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  Speaker 1: to find out what's going on, news organizations have to
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  Speaker 1: post their stories on TikTok or Facebook if they've got
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  Speaker 1: any chance of having them noticed by the audience.
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  Speaker 5: And in twenty twenty one, Parliament determined that Meta should
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  Speaker 5: pay for the news it users.
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  Speaker 1: That's the world first news media Bargaining code that was
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  Speaker 1: passed by the Australian Parliament after the a Triable C
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  Speaker 1: found the big tech platforms were the news media industry's
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  Speaker 1: unavoidable trading partners. Essentially be a trible C, which is
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  Speaker 1: the Competition watchdog said platforms are profiting from news news
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  Speaker 1: content and should pay for it. Facing the thread of
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  Speaker 1: the code, both Google and Facebook did deals with Australian publishers.
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  Speaker 1: Now as its three year deals expire, Meta is refusing
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  Speaker 1: to renew them, saying neither it nor its users are
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  Speaker 1: actually interested in news now. Their decision now triggers the
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  Speaker 1: possibility of them being designated under the bargaining code and
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  Speaker 1: told that despite what it says, it is still using
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  Speaker 1: news content and should return to the negotiating table. In Canada,
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  Speaker 1: faced with the same demand that it pays for news,
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  Speaker 1: METAUP turned news off on Facebook, saying you can't force
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  Speaker 1: us to pay for something we no longer carry.
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  Speaker 6: We had a deal, they walked away.
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  Speaker 5: I believe they had an obligation to renew the agreements
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  Speaker 5: and honor our laws. It is intriguing that Meta has
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  Speaker 5: no problem turning off the news, but has a big
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  Speaker 5: problem turning off teenage fight clubs, the bullying of young women,
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  Speaker 5: or scam advertising.
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  Speaker 6: We cannot let ourselves be bullied.
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  Speaker 5: Meta must be designated under the Media Bargaining Code and
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  Speaker 5: challenged to negotiate in good faith.
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  Speaker 1: But the problem is who can make them pay.
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  Speaker 5: Met has been a frequent target of regulators in the
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  Speaker 5: last two years. As of last week, there are at
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  Speaker 5: least thirty enforcement actions against Meta around the globe.
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  Speaker 6: But when does this money get paid?
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  Speaker 5: Their usual pattern is to fight any ruling against them
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  Speaker 5: through appeals.
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  Speaker 6: In the courts.
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  Speaker 5: For years, the tech monopolies love to use the law
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  Speaker 5: to protect their right to be above the law.
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  Speaker 6: When the threat of.
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  Speaker 5: Regulation comes in their direction, the tech monopoly has a playbook.
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  Speaker 5: They declare that they want to be regulated, that no
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  Speaker 5: solution is ever workable for them. Then they insist that
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  Speaker 5: regulation should be harmonized across jurisdictions, and Meta knows that
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  Speaker 5: such a global agreement is never going to happen.
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  Speaker 1: Miller said the social license he's proposing would put social
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  Speaker 1: media executives under exactly the same kinds of rules that
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  Speaker 1: apply to every other company.
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: A company may want to come to Australia to mine
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  Speaker 5: the mineral of the moment copper. We rightly regard copper
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  Speaker 5: as Australian property and if you want to extract it,
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  Speaker 5: here are just a few of the things that Australia requires.
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  Speaker 5: You will pay a royalty on the copper to access
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  Speaker 5: the copper. You will fairly negotiate with the landowners. You
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  Speaker 5: will hire Australians and meet all our industrial relations standards, safety.
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  Speaker 6: Requirements and awards.
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  Speaker 5: You will meet all environmental requirements, and you will pay
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  Speaker 5: to fix any damage you cause or face preak. In
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  Speaker 5: my view, the tech monopolies are also mining companies, but
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  Speaker 5: they don't mind our minerals. They mind our lives.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Coming up, How AI fits into this complicated picture. Like
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: the media landscape, the Australian is always evolving. Our subscribers
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: get breaking news alerts and commentary direct to their phones,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: as well as access to newsletters and special events. Check
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: us out at Vaustralian dot com dot au and we'll
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: be back after this break. In May, News Corps Global
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: boss Robert Thompson announced a landmark agreement with OpenAI, a
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  Speaker 1: tech company that owns the generative artificial intelligence platform chat GPT.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: If AI falls under the broad umbrella of machine learning.
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  Speaker 1: That means sophisticated algorithms crawl the Internet and synthesize all
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  Speaker 1: the information they can find on a given topic. Then
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: they spit it back out in whatever format. We ask
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  Speaker 1: for images, videos, essays and more. In licensing the expert
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  Speaker 1: FactCheck journalism produced by news Corps many mast heads around
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  Speaker 1: the globe. The hope is that the information served up
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  Speaker 1: to users of chat, GPT and others is of the
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  Speaker 1: highest quality and accuracy. News Corp Australia CEO Michael Miller
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  Speaker 1: was asked about the agreement at the Press Club on Wednesday.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you for your spirch Olivia Island from the Sidney
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  Speaker 4: Morning Herald the age, miss Miller. A year ago, News
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  Speaker 4: Corp was giving warnings about the use of artificial intelligence
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  Speaker 4: and its effects on the media, and now you're doing deals.
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  Speaker 4: What exactly has changed.
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  Speaker 5: Jim DVAI has not been in the vernacular for long.
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  Speaker 5: I think changed over the past year is that a
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  Speaker 5: lot of those AI companies have learned from the tech
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  Speaker 5: platforms to engage with media earlier. And that's what I
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  Speaker 5: think all media companies are seeing that they are wanting
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  Speaker 5: to have conversations. They see media as being important partners
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  Speaker 5: and that media companies should be open to having those conversations.
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  Speaker 5: There's no doubt that those AI companies need media companies
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  Speaker 5: and that if the partnership is right, then I don't
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  Speaker 5: think media companies should be closed minded to working with
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  Speaker 5: AI companies either.
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  Speaker 1: So you're not going to hear episodes of the Front
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  Speaker 1: scripted by chat GPT ever, and this is where the
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  Speaker 1: confusion comes from. News Corp, like other publishers, is exploring
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  Speaker 1: the use of AI to make journalism more efficient, faster
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  Speaker 1: and more accurate. But it's not anywhere near our news
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  Speaker 1: or investigative content. It's information like weather, traffic conditions, fuel prices,
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  Speaker 1: or based on information that's publicly available and independently verified.
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  Speaker 1: I asked the boss of our Data journalism division about
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  Speaker 1: this and he said generative AI is not writing stories.
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  Speaker 1: It can't be trusted for that. Nothing is published without
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  Speaker 1: being carefully checked by an editor, a human.
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  Speaker 7: Thank you Dana Daniel from The Camera Times. Again, you've
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  Speaker 7: said that it won't be a big deal if MATA
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  Speaker 7: leaves Australia and that we can just come up with
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  Speaker 7: other social media platforms fill in that space. But Australia
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  Speaker 7: is not really a tech superpower. Do you see this
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  Speaker 7: as something that government should fund and subsidize an alternative
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  Speaker 7: social media industry in Australia.
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  Speaker 5: First of all meta leaving the country. The E Safety
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  Speaker 5: Commissioner said that there were thirty two million reports of
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  Speaker 5: child exploitation online last year. Eighty five percent of those
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  Speaker 5: came from the four meta platforms Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook and threads.
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  Speaker 5: They are by far the worst actor thirty two million.
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  Speaker 6: Good riddance.
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  Speaker 5: If you don't want to not just sign up to
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  Speaker 5: our values, but sign up to our laws, why do we.
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  Speaker 7: Want them here so we don't need subsidies, then I'm.
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  Speaker 6: A head ask for subsidies.
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  Speaker 5: I'm asking for the government to move quickly with a
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  Speaker 5: social license that enshrines our way of life, that protects
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  Speaker 5: austrained businesses, not just protect a strained business, put just
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  Speaker 5: a level playing field. We're not even asking for protection,
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  Speaker 5: We're looking for a level playing field. Have them play
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  Speaker 5: by our laws and if not, put penalties in place.
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  Speaker 5: That's what other businesses have to sign up to. That's
• 13:25
  Speaker 5: what they should sign up to.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us on the front we'll be back
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: right here tomorrow. In the meantime, join our subscribers at
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: the Australian dot com