SOCIAL MEDIA – UNITED STATES

Forrest election plea: Force Meta to set up local operation

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Original article by Jared Lynch
The Australian – Page: 24 : 8-Apr-25

Mining magnate Andrew Forrest contends that Australian sovereignty should be the key factor when considering how to regulate foreign technology platforms such as Meta. He says the winner of the federal election on 3 May should take immediate action to require digital platforms to operate in Australia via a local legal entity and be subject to the nation’s laws and regulations. Forrest has been engaged in a long-running battle with Meta to remove scam ads that use his likeness from its platforms. He has opted for legal action in California because Meta has sought to use a 30-year-old US law that grants online companies immunity regarding content that is posted on their platforms.

CORPORATES
META PLATFORMS INCORPORATED

Facebook ‘damaging communities’: News Corp CEO

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Original article by James Madden
The Australian – Page: 2 : 6-Mar-24

News Corporation’s CEO Robert Thomson has criticised Meta Platforms for opting against renewing its revenue-sharing deals with Australian news publishers. Thomson has told a media and telecom conference in San Francisco that Meta’s decision shows a blatant disregard for the Australian community, especially as Meta is a company that talks about ‘community’. Thomson has also questioned Meta’s claim that news comprises less than three per cent of the content people see on their Facebook feed; he contends that while there is core news, 100 per cent of the contemporary factual information on Facebook is news, and this is what Meta should be focusing on.

CORPORATES
NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, META PLATFORMS INCORPORATED, FACEBOOK

Elon Musk threatens to put Twitter behind a paywall

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Original article by Isabella Ward, Marissa Newman
The Age – Page: Online : 20-Sep-23

US billionaire Elon Musk has flagged the possibility of introducing a monthly subscription fee for all users of X, which was formerly known as Twitter. Musk raised the possibility of paywalling the popular social media site during a meeting with Elon Musk during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the corporate office of Tesla in California. Musk suggested that a subscription fee would deter so-called ‘bots’, as each automated account would require a separate payment method. It would also help to combat the problem of antisemitism and hate speech on the social media platform.

CORPORATES
X, TWITTER INCORPORATED

Musk set to kill billions in brand value with sudden Twitter rebrand

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Original article by Aisha Counts, Jesse Levine
The Australian Financial Review – Page: Online : 26-Jul-23

Analysts and brand agencies warn that Elon Musk’s move to rebadge Twitter’s product name and scrap its well-known bird logo could backfire. They estimate that it could reduce the value of the brand by between $US4 billion and $US20 billion. Steve Susi from Siegel & Gale says it took Twitter more than 15 years to earn that amount of brand equity globally, while Todd Irwin of brand agency Fazer notes that Twitter is one of the most recognisable social media brands. There have also been claims that Meta already owns the tradmark for the letter ‘X’ with regard to social media.

CORPORATES
TWITTER INCORPORATED, SIEGEL AND GALE INCORPORATED, FAZER

Twitter deal could be terrific: Sims

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Original article by John Davidson, Tess Bennett, Yolanda Redrup
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 10 : 27-Apr-22

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission’s former chairman Rod Sims has welcomed the acquisition of Twitter by US billionaire Elon Musk. He says the $64.1bn deal will be "terrific" for Australian businesses if Musk follows through with his plans for Twitter, which including making its algorithms open source and cracking down on disinformation on the social media platform. However, Reset Australia’s executive director Chris Cooper says the Twitter buyout demonstrates the need for proper regulation of technology companies.

CORPORATES
TWITTER INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION, RESET AUSTRALIA

Andrew Forrest sues Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook over scam ads

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Original article by Danielle Le Messurier
The West Australian – Page: Online : 3-Feb-22

Fortescue Metals Group founder Andrew Forrest has filed criminal charges against social media giant Facebook in the Magistrates Court of Western Australia. Forrest alleges that Facebook has been "criminally reckless" in failing to take sufficient action to block fake advertisements that use his name and image to promote cryptocurrency scams on its platforms. Forrest has also accused Facebook of breaching Australia’s money-laundering laws. Forrest previously filed a US civil case against Facebook in September 2021.

CORPORATES
FORTESCUE METALS GROUP LIMITED – ASX FMG, FACEBOOK, META PLATFORMS INCORPORATED, MAGISTRATES COURT OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Facebook beats Biden’s antitrust suit

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Original article by Cecilia Kang
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 16 : 30-Jun-21

The market capitalisation of Facebook has risen above $US1bn for the first time after a judge dismissed an antitrust case against the social media giant. The US Federal Trade Commission and more than 40 states had launched the case against Facebook, but the federal court ruled amongst other things that the prosecutors had failed to provide sufficient evidence to support claims that the company has a monopoly in the social networking sector. The lawsuit had sought to break up Facebook by forcing it to divest Instagram and WhatsApp, which it had acquired in 2012 and 2014 respectively.

CORPORATES
FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, DISTRICT COURT OF UNITED STATES, INSTAGRAM LLC, WHATSAPP INCORPORATED

Facebook, Twittter, YouTube block US President Donald Trump amid Washington violence

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Original article by David Swan
The Australian – Page: Online : 8-Jan-21

Social media companies Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have all taken action against President Donald Trump in the wake of the violence that hit Washington on 7 January. Twitter removed three of Trump’s tweets and suspended his account for 12 hours, saying it will remain locked until he removes them. Facebook blocked Trump from posting for 24 hours, and also blocked him from posting to Instagram. Both YouTube and Facebook sought to block the dissemination of a pre-recorded video from Trump, with the video receiving over 179,000 ‘likes’ on Trump’s Facebook page before it was removed.

CORPORATES
FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, TWITTER INCORPORATED, YOUTUBE INCORPORATED

Facebook’s secrecy putting kids at risk

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Original article by Ben Packham
The Australian – Page: 2 : 7-Feb-20

Child protection groups have urged Facebook not to proceed with end-to-end encryption across Messenger and its other platforms. The groups state that introducing such encryption will lead to "more serious and sustained sexual abuse", and that Facebook should only proceed with the encryption if it adopts measures to scan for child abuse images and consents to share data with governments and child safety experts. Sonya Ryan, the CEO of the Carly Ryan Foundation, has described the potential impact of Facebook’s end-to-end encryption plans as "frightening".

CORPORATES
FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, CARLY RYAN FOUNDATION

Facebook News a powerful precedent

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Original article by Zoe Samios
The Australian – Page: 23 & 25 : 28-Oct-19

News Corporation CEO Robert Thomson has praised Facebook’s news service initiative, which has been launched in the US with a test audience of 200,000 users. Thomson says the Facebook News tab will help ensure that media publishers are paid for quality journalism, adding that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg deserves "genuine credit" for the new initiative. Facebook has struck a deal to include content from News Corp publications such as ‘The Wall Street Journal’ in its news service.

CORPORATES
NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, FACEBOOK INCORPORATED