© Provided by The GuardianPhotograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
Two weeks after Facebook struck a deal with the Australian government to pay publishers for displaying their news content the social network has failed to sign a single big media player - sparking fears of a second news feed ban.
Sources close to the negotiations say Facebook is either freezing them out or refusing to budge on key clauses, which could indicate the platform is getting cold feet and considering "pulling the plug" again.
Facebook last month was globally condemned for "attempting to bully a democracy" when it stopped its 18 million Australian users from viewing or sharing news stories. But a longer crisis was averted when the government made last-minute amendments to its media code that Facebook was happy with.
© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPFacebook Australia would not answer questions about potentially pulling news again, but said it was still talking to media companies.
While Facebook has signed letters of intent with three smaller players and Seven West Media, which publishes two newspapers, it's failed to come to an agreement with the three biggest employers of journalists: News Corp Australia, Nine Entertainment and the ABC.
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The federal treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has been encouraging publishers to push for a resolution.
"The government expects all parties to continue to work constructively towards reaching commercial agreements in the spirit of collaboration and good faith encouraged by the code," Frydenberg told Guardian Australia.
"Consideration on whether to designate a digital platform will be based on the progress they have made towards making a significant contribution to Australian public interest journalism and with respect to whether there is a significant bargaining power imbalance with Australian news media businesses."
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair, Rod Sims, has said the "main bulk of journalists" work for News Corp, Nine and the ABC and he expects the amount of money the platforms pay to be "proportionate to their size".
News and Nine have signed letters of intent for multimillion-dollar deals with Google as have Guardian Australia and other smaller publishers. The ABC has not come to an agreement with Google or Facebook.
Publishers of mastheads including the Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph are not confident Facebook is negotiating in good faith and say progress has stalled.
Some have rejected Facebook's offer because it includes the "ability to terminate" a contract should the platform be designated by the treasurer - a clause sources say they "will never agree to".
Facebook's vice-president of global news partnerships, Campbell Brown, has indicated the company is prepared to reinstate a new ban in the future.
"Going forward, the government has clarified we will retain the ability to decide if news appears on Facebook so that we won't automatically be subject to a forced negotiation," Brown said last month.
Facebook Australia would not answer questions about potentially pulling news again, or stalling talks, but said it had made progress with deals last month and was still talking to publishers.
"We announced four deals in just one week and we continue to engage with publishers to further our investment in Australian journalism," a spokesperson said.
"These deals follow our three-year engagement with the news industry which has included partnership deals, accelerator programs and financial relief to help manage the impact of Covid."
The four Facebook letters of intent are subject to signing a long-form agreement within 60 days.
Facebook in late February said it had reached an agreement with the Australian government to "encourage innovation and collaboration between online platforms and publishers".
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"After further discussions, we are satisfied that the Australian government has agreed to a number of changes and guarantees that address our core concerns about allowing commercial deals that recognise the value our platform provides to publishers relative to the value we receive from them," the company announced.
"As a result of these changes, we can now work to further our investment in public interest journalism and restore news on Facebook for Australians in the coming days."
But since then the platform has failed to come to terms with any of the major publishers.
Sims told parliament that unless deals are done with "all eligible parties" there was a "much stronger chance that designation will occur".
"I had not envisaged a situation where not everybody had got a deal, and yet there was no designation," he said. "I think a deal has to be done with everyone who is eligible."
Facebook can avoid designation by removing news feed from Australia, which it did in mid-February without warning. "To find that Facebook just unilaterally took news off their platform, I certainly found most surprising and unusual," Sims said.