Facebook is a news publisher ‘by its own admission’

Facebook has revealed itself as a news publisher “by its own admission”, and it is a dangerous one which can avoid playing by the same rules as other news outlets according to Sky News Digital Editor Jack Houghton.

Mr Houghton’s comments come as tech giants have taken the “extraordinary step” of editing news stories published by newsrooms, with Facebook and Twitter having become the most militant of these companies.

“This week CEOs Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg squirmed before the US senate as they were asked how they could possibly argue to simply being platforms when they were taking aggressive editorial stances on news stories,” Mr Houghton said.

“Both company bosses descended into Orwellian double-speak when asked whether they were publishers, and both of them refused this title.”

Mr Houghton noted the reason the two tech giant bosses are so terrified of being classified as publishers is because Section 230 of America’s Communications Decency Act gives tech oligarchs legal protections from content published on their websites.

“Facebook and Twitter cannot have it both ways,” he said.

Mr Houghton spoke of an ad from Facebook which offered a position as a Digital News Curator which – in the description – said the recipient should be experienced in making “difficult editorial decisions”.

“Why would a platform have to make editorial decisions? Because it is not a platform,” he said.

“It is a news publisher, by its own admission.”

Видео Facebook is a news publisher ‘by its own admission’ канала Sky News Australia