Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young is demanding answers from Meta after Australian users were unable to post links to Australian news outlets on Threads and Instagram on Monday, sparking fears that news was being blocked on the social media sites. The company called it an error.
Publisher accounts were still able to post in some cases, but individual user accounts were unable to post links, including to the Sydney Morning Herald, ABC and Crikey, as well as some global sites such as the Guardian. International sites such as the New York Times appeared to be unaffected. The incident was first reported by Crikey.
On Threads, Meta’s answer to X, people attempting to post a news link saw the thumbnail preview appear and then disappear, with an error message loading instead.
One of those users was Hanson-Young, who on Monday afternoon wrote a letter to Meta after the “deeply concerning” incident “given the ongoing debate in Australia over Meta’s refusal to pay for the public interest journalism”.
In the letter, seen by Guardian Australia, she asked the company to explain what caused the “technical glitch” and whether it could “rule out that it is testing and / or preparing the capacity to block Australian news media content”.
“Will Meta guarantee Australian news media will remain available on your platforms going forward?” she asked.
She also questioned the steps Meta was taking to retain its “social licence” in Australia in the face of “mounting evidence concerning the harms of social media, particularly on our democracy and on young people”.
A spokesperson for Meta said the block was not deliberate.
“We’re aware of an error taking place and we’re working to resolve this,” a spokesperson said.
As of Monday afternoon, users reported being able to post links again.
It is understood not to be a deliberate block on news similar to the news ban temporarily implemented by Meta in 2021 in Australia in response to legislation that threatened to force the company to negotiate with news media to pay for content.
A similar ban on news content in Canada that went into place in August last year over attempts to pay for news is still in effect.
Meta announced in March it would not enter into new agreements with media companies to pay for news after contracts signed in 2021 expire.
The assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, is considering whether the Albanese government should use powers under the news media bargaining code legislation to “designate” Meta under the code, which would force the tech company to enter into negotiations for payment with news providers, or risk fines of 10% of its Australian revenue.
No decision has yet been made. News publishers have warned that Meta may pull news off Instagram and Facebook if designated under the code.
The federal government has indicated it is considering a range of options to avoid this scenario, including a “must carry” rule to force Meta to carry news on its platforms.
In Meta’s response to questions published last week from MPs about “must carry” rules from last month’s parliamentary inquiry hearing on social media, Meta said it couldn’t comment on hypothetical scenarios.
“It is not possible to comment on the imposition of a hypothetical ‘must carry’ requirement without knowing the details of any such requirement. Meta would need to carefully consider the form of the must carry proposed and its position,” the company said.
Meta previously told the committee “all options are on the table” if Meta is designated under the code and forced to negotiate payments to news companies, but would not comment on hypothetical proposals until the government has announced its position.
