The federal government should move to bring Facebook under its News Media Bargaining Code, after the global tech giant refused to strike deals with significant media outlets.

Both SBS and The Conversation have been told that Facebook will not be recognising the value of their journalism on their platform, with many other smaller outlets still without a deal.

“This decision flies in the face of the Code’s core proposition, that Facebook was an advertising monopoly that should be required to compensate public interest journalism for their content bought to their platforms,” said Peter Lewis, Director of the Centre for Responsible Technology.

“Refusing to recognise the value of academic journalism and multicultural broadcasting says a lot about Facebook’s commitment to fact-based public interest journalism.

“Facebook sparked international anger in February when it purged Australian news from its sites, along with critical public interest information and government websites.

“The subsequent negotiations saw the Treasurer agree to allow the platform to strike deals with media outlets and avoid legislative designation to be covered by the Code.

“Now these undertakings have been breached, the treasurer has no alternative but to revisit designating Facebook to ensure that it meets its commitments to public interest journalism in Australia.”