Andy Burnham must take on Facebook and Instagram – they've just started a war

John Healey's first Budget painted a gloomy picture of Britain’s finances, blaming the war in the Middle East for driving up prices and borrowing costs. The Chancellor has since faced criticism for not going further and faster to tackle the mounting pressure on hard-pressed British households and businesses.

There is certainly much more Andy Burnham's Government could do to help British business, including our world-leading news media sector. Whether they work for local, regional or national titles, our brilliant journalists perform a crucial role in our democracy, holding power to account without fear or favour. Yet the recent actions of one of the biggest bullies in the tech giant playground threaten to put this vital work at risk.

Meta, owner of household-name platforms including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has launched a war on journalism, which has taken even its staunchest critics by surprise for its sheer breathtaking hypocrisy. Buried within reams of paperwork, a clause in its updated terms for businesses made clear that users of its business accounts would now have to hand over all their content to Meta to power its AI products.

Huge risks for democracy

Why does this matter? Like any business, news publishers must monetise their journalism to pay for journalists and the infrastructure that supports them. If they are forced to hand over all their journalistic content to a powerful tech player for use in AI products, which are increasingly displacing news websites, then publishers’ ability to monetise that content is lost.

So, Meta has presented news publishers with an invidious choice – either hand over all their journalism or come off Meta’s platforms. The latter option carries huge risks for our democracy.

Increasingly, journalists play a critical role in combating swathes of misinformation and disinformation that would otherwise run unchecked on social platforms such as Facebook. During times of crisis in a community, such as the Southport and Belfast riots, this becomes even more valuable.

And, with governments and regulators seemingly content to look the other way, Facebook has been allowed to become so dominant that it is all but impossible to ignore as a gateway to online audiences. Removing journalistic content from Facebook would plunge us into a nightmare scenario where misinformation and disinformation overwhelm the digital ecosystem.

As one of the world's biggest companies with huge resources and expertise at its disposal, you would have thought Meta would understand the huge value journalism contributes to its platforms. Apparently not.

Sheer hypocrisy

The sheer hypocrisy of Meta's strong-arm tactics is laid bare when you consider how carefully it protects its own platforms from exactly the same behaviour it wants to inflict on others. Explicit permission requirements, use restrictions, and blanket blocks on AI crawlers all prevent Meta’s platforms from being scraped for AI.

One rule for the ultimate Silicon Valley hypocrite, and another for the rest of us. Globally, news publishers have pushed back strongly with some success.

In Norway, a court ruled in favour of media companies, saying the legality of the new terms must be reviewed by a court before they can come into effect. This has forced Meta into a partial climbdown, opening the door to delaying further the introduction of the new terms.

The British news media industry launched its annual Journalism Matters campaign last week, celebrating the benefits journalism delivers for us all. Andy Burnham has, rightly, shown his support – recognising that journalism is a vital part of our national infrastructure and not simply a nice-to-have. His words must now be followed by decisive action.

Timidity no longer an option

Meta’s gross attack on British business should be all the evidence the Competition and Markets Authority needs to secure the political backing to address the overwhelming dominance of tech platforms in our digital markets. The regulator has done some good work over the past year, particularly on Google Search, but has been hampered from going further and faster by a timid political approach.

The Government must show it does not accept any company bullying British business, and this needs to start from the PM and extend to key members of his Cabinet. Timidity in the face of Silicon Valley bullying is no longer an option – there is too much at stake.

If Mr Burnham truly believes that journalism matters, his Government will make clear that it will back the independent regulator to protect British businesses and citizens’ access to trusted news.

Theo Bamber is chief executive of the News Media Association