With CNN deactivating their official pages, Australians will now no longer be able to access any Facebook pages run by CNN, including pages dedicated to CNN’s shows. “We are disappointed that Facebook, once again, has failed to ensure its platform is a place for credible journalism and productive dialogue around current events among its users,” a CNN spokesperson said. “CNN will, of course, continue to publish content on our own platforms in Australia and to deliver quality journalism to our audiences around the world,” it added.
CNN Australia Disables Facebook Pages
CNN Australia is the first Australian news outlet to exit Facebook. The social media platform giant has issued a statement, saying it looked forward to “greater clarity and certainty in this area” of Australian defamation law. “While it’s not our place to provide legal guidance to CNN, we have provided them with the latest information on tools we make available to help publishers manage comments,” the statement said. Currently, Facebook page owners can restrict who comments on their posts, or even turn off commenting altogether.
Court Rules against Media Outlets in ‘Comment Liability’ Issue
In a five-two majority decision, Australia’s highest court ruled that news outlets are considered “publishers” of any defamatory comments posted by Facebook users on their official pages. This ruling follows the case of juvenile detainee Dylan Voller, who expressed wanting to sue several media outlets over comments made on the posts regarding his case. Voller named the news outlets The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Centralian Advocate, Sky News Australia, and The Bolt Report. The courts ruled in favor of Voller, after which the media outlets involved lodged an appeal. Their argument was that they simply created a Facebook page and that it was third parties who made the derogatory comments. However, the High Court threw out the appeal and ordered the companies involved to pay costs. After news of the ruling broke, CNN allegedly asked Facebook for help to automatically disable comments on all the pages they owned. Facebook supposedly declined the request. Instead, the social media company suggested assisting CNN in disabling comments on each individual post.
