Today We Learned Three Things About Facebook

The catalyst for Facebook’s decision today to shut down hundreds of sites in Australia was news. Facebook doesn’t want to have to pay news-makers for news content uploaded to its site in Australia. And without getting into the details, maybe it has a point.

However, when you clear the smoke screen away from today’s issues, it reminds us of three things about Facebook.

First, Facebook holds incredible power. Australia’s Federal Treasurer speaking directly to Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg was unable to head off the events of today. A democratically elected nation state wrestling with a tech giant is not a fair fight.

Second, Facebook uses its power. To make a statement about not having to pay for news that other people load to its sites, Facebook could have killed off the pages of the major television, radio and newspaper networks in Australia. The point would have been made impacting perhaps thirty, or forty, organisations at most. That’s not what happened. Facebook didn’t personally respond to the threat of new Australian legislation.

It let an algorithm do it.

The algorithm took out government health sites, charities and small business, some highly dependent on the reach of Facebook for their livelihoods. Facebook did switch many pages back on during the course of the day, perhaps (and ironically) in response to mainstream media organisations that pointed out the issues. But damage was done.

I very much doubt that Facebook has a PR department, or one that would care too much, even if it did. We are routinely told that markets like Australia are a rounding error to Facebook.

Which is the third lesson. When we sign up to free social media platforms, no doubt in the fine print that none of us bother to read, will be a warning that the platform can be taken away from any of us at any moment. Of course none of us take that seriously. It’s our site. Not theirs. Our data. Our friends. Our network.

No it’s not.

I know a large business that was recently cut out of using Facebook advertising for five weeks at a critical stage of a marketing campaign. Facebook offered no reason why the organisation was prohibited from advertising and vaguely hinted that it could be an administrative error, but they couldn’t be sure. Message over. There’s no number to call for Facebook.

If any of us run a business with a critical dependency on social media platforms, we should probably have a good plan B in place.

Just like democracies, it’s a collection individuals that give tech giants their power. Billions of us empower Facebook every day, just by turning up. Mostly, there’s not much wrong with that. We get to socially interact for free. Facebook get some data and sells it and some ads.

But days like today remind us that the balance may have shifted a little too far. Today’s issue made the news but is not about the news. That's the sideshow. It’s actually about how we regulate the tech giants we create with our unblinking loyalty. It’s about how what we create can sit alongside the democracies that govern us.

If everyone left Facebook right now, it would be worthless entity. That won’t happen. And because it won’t happen we are left to wrestle with far harder questions.

I am an experienced CEO, business strategist and communications specialist who loves helping great organisations grow. Other articles include:

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