Dear Friend,

Facebook has pulled all news content from its Australian users’ feeds, a preemptive, mob-like retaliation against the government’s efforts (not yet passed by Parliament) to force tech giants to pay for using publishers’ content. The New Republic’s newest staff writer, Jacob Silverman, reported, “The country’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, said that his government ‘will not be intimidated.’” As Silverman put it, “Mark Zuckerberg thinks he’s not only above the law, but powerful enough to bend it to his will.”

What is it that Facebook wants? Silverman’s answer: “Facebook wants the right to devour a country’s advertising market and freely tinker with the algorithmic dials governing what millions of people see.”

Along with other small publishers, The New Republic’s style of fearless, independent journalism is what keeps our democracy humming. And as Facebook, Google, and other tech giants use our content and monopolize our advertising revenue, some won’t survive. TNR is increasingly dependent on readers to support our writers. 

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Citing recent incidents in Turkey and Myanmar, Silverman adds that this “isn’t the first time, even in recent memory, that Facebook has defied a country’s laws or its leadership…. How Australia and other countries, including the U.S., respond may go a long way toward shaping future relationships between states and the tech giants dominating the public sphere.”

As Jacob Silverman warns, “Facebook more than ever represents a belligerent mafia-esque actor, bullying governments over laws and regulations it disagrees with.”

Jacob Silverman and his colleagues at TNR understand that big tech monopolies are fundamentally at odds with democracy and market competition–shining a light on the abuse is a step toward ending it.

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Sincerely,

Kerrie Gillis, publisher

Read Jacob Silverman’s Facebook Is a Global Mafia