ACCC cracks down on Google, Facebook dominance of internet
Australia's consumer watchdog is cracking down on Google and Facebook over the tech giants' dominance of the internet.
The ACCC has concluded that "the market power of Google and Facebook has distorted the ability of businesses to compete on their merits in advertising, media and a range of other markets".
The watchdog concluded that consumers are not adequately informed about how their data is collected.
Facebook is one of the most dominant companies on the internet. AAP
It also said the news outlets are increasingly reliant on Facebook and Google, but have difficulties monetising their content.
"The dominant digital platforms’ response to the issues we have raised might best be described as ‘trust us’," ACCC Chair Rod Sims said.
"There is nothing wrong with being highly focused on revenue growth and providing increasing value to shareholders; indeed it can be admired. But we believe the issues we have uncovered during this inquiry are too important to be left to the companies themselves."
The watchdog is recommending the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) monitors Facebook and Google to ensure they are identifying "reliable and trustworthy news".
Google has a virtual monopoly on the internet's search traffic. AAP
It is also recommended the platforms create an industry code to handle deliberately misleading and harmful news stories.
The ACCC is also recommended targeted $50m grants to support local journalism.
Nine CEO Hugh Marks welcomed the ACCC report.
"We'd like to congratulate the ACCC and the government for the initiative they’ve taken and for the comprehensive nature of the response," he said.
"We're enthused by what we’ve seen so far."
Fake news
Facebook and Google are under increasing pressure worldwide to crack down on misleading news stories that proliferate on their platforms.
In the final three months of the 2016 US election, four of the five most shared political news stories on Facebook were fabricated.
All of them were anti-Hillary Clinton or pro-Donald Trump, including the most popular, which claimed the now-president was endorsed by Pope Francis.
Hillary Clinton's campaign was hacked by Russian operatives. AAP
Three of those four came from a website called Ending The Fed, a purported news site that stopped updating after the election.
Ending The Fed had massive viral reach with made-up stories declaring the Pope had endorsed Trump, that Clinton sold weapons to ISIS and the particularly clickbait-style story: "Hillary's ISIS email just leaked and it's worse than anyone could have imagined".
That website was created by a 24-year-old Romanian Trump supporter, who denied any connection with Russia.
Australian visitors to the site now get directed to a phony ABC webpage spruiking Bitcoin.
Meanwhile, 140 US politics websites were set up by teenagers and young men in the small Macedonian town of Veles.
An investigation by Buzzfeed found the Macedonians were disinterested in pushing a Trump agenda, but discovered that fake news confirming a conservative mindset tending to click substantially better than liberal alternatives.
Facebook clicks deliver a small return of Google Adsense revenue, but it was enough to motivate an explosion of fake news websites in Macedonia.
Nine is the publisher of this website.
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