Facebook’s parent company Meta has denied claims it tested a second Australian news ban on its platform this year, telling an inquiry the issue was merely an error.
But executives from the tech giant said it would continue to consider a nationwide news ban if the federal government forced it to negotiate deals with local news outlets.
Meta representatives appeared at the Social Media and Australian Society inquiry on Wednesday afternoon after being recalled from an earlier hearing.
The inquiry, which was established in May, is investigating a range social media issues, including Meta’s decision not to renew deals with Australian news outlets, the role of journalism in countering misinformation, illegal online content, and the use of age verification technology.
Meta Australia regional policy director Mia Garlick told committee members the tech giant considered Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code to be “unworkable legislation” and it would consider “all options” including a news ban if forced to work with it.
But Ms Garlick said an issue on August 12 in which users found they could not share Australian news articles on some Meta platforms was not part of a test.
“There was an error on Instagram and Threads that for a number of hours did prevent the sharing of links on both of those apps,” she said.
“Once we became of that, we rectified it. That was an error.”
Under the code, digital platforms that are designated by the government are legally required to negotiate commercial deals with media outlets or face fines of up to 10 per cent of their local revenue.
Ms Garlick said Meta had not been approached by the federal government about the code since February, and its position against the law had not changed.
“When we’re talking about the sustainability of the news ecosystem, I don’t think we should be talking about social obligations or things like that,” she said.
Meta global safety head Antigone Davis also appeared before the inquiry, and called on Australian regulators to consider forcing software platforms and app stores to verify the age of internet users, rather than putting the obligation on social media platforms.
“We think the (operating system) or app store is a very important first layer,” she said.
“We’re just asking for a requirement for them to share that age information with us.”
Ms Davis said Meta had invested in a range of age verification and assurance tools to estimate the age of its users, including requesting identification documents from users who tried to increase the age under their profile.
But she said the systems in place to estimate ages were still unreliable and the company did not know how many of its users were under its minimum age.
“In terms of people who are under the age of 13 on the platform, it’s very hard for us to assess that,” Ms Davis said.
“If we know that they’re on the platform, we’re going to remove them.”
The social media inquiry is expected to release a final report in November.
