‘Huff and puff’: Government urged to ‘make Meta pay’ for ‘appalling’ decision

Shadow Communications Minister David Coleman has slammed Meta’s “appalling” and “disgraceful” conduct after its decision to stop paying for Australian news content on its platforms. Earlier this month, the tech giant made the decision to walk away from commercial deals with Australian news outlets. The decision is expected to cost Australian news outlets hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for their content. “The government has got to make Meta pay but it actually took two weeks after the Meta decision before the media companies even got a letter asking them with a clear request to provide information about why Meta should be designated under the code,” Mr Coleman told Sky News Australia. “The government was not ready, they want to huff and puff and they want to say Meta is bad well we all agree Meta’s conduct is terrible. “All that matters is the outcome and the government talks a lot about process and process is important but more important than process is the outcome.”