Meta has blocked the biggest Australian commercial television network on Facebook from posting video content, leaving staff speculating about whether the tech giant is dragging its feet in resolving the months-long copyright dispute as it butts heads with local media companies.
The block, which has been in place since April 1, has meant the 7News Australia Facebook page — the biggest of any commercial Australian television network with 2.52 million followers — has been restricted from directly posting video content. It has instead been forced to cross-post and reshare content from its masthead pages based in state capital cities.
Sources speaking to Crikey have claimed the block is the result of complaints from News Corp-owned social news agency Storyful, which has regularly pursued copyright complaints against old content it had recently purchased the rights to.
A Seven source said the offending content tended to involve short viral social media clips described by a source as “clickbait”, rather than hard news stories, and that the ban is imposed via automated processes rather than human assessment of the copyright claim.
Crikey understands that efforts from Seven to rectify the situation through Meta have been slow, which sources speculate is because of the American tech company’s recent withdrawal from its Australian news deals.
Storyful did not respond to questions, which included whether the company had made retrospective copyright claims on content after purchasing the rights to that content and the nature of those claims.
Meta declined to comment on the record.
Seven is set to make $100 million worth of cost cuts, with up to 150 jobs on the chopping block.
Unlike its competitors Nine and Network Ten, which have subscription streaming services, Seven has not established similar alternate sources of revenue and has been particularly exposed to the recent advertising downturn, reporting a 53% half-yearly drop in profits in February.
