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What's happening
CNET has obtained and is publishing whistleblower disclosures to Congress detailing how Facebook intentionally blocked Australian government pages as a negotiating tactic over a new bill lawmakers were considering.
Why it matters
The disclosure is the latest in a series of leaks that portray Facebook wielding its power as the world's largest social network in aggressive and potentially damaging ways.
What it means for you
Lawmakers and regulators around the world are increasingly scrutinizing the tech industry, which could lead to new rules for how companies treat your data.
Facebook whistleblowers accused the social network of intentionally blocking Australian government and emergency health official pages last year to influence a proposed law. CNET has obtained and is publishing the whistleblowers' disclosures provided to Congress.
Filed with US and Australian authorities in March and April, the documents describe alleged internal efforts at Facebook to break a February 2021 standoff with the Australian government. Australia was considering a bill that would force online platforms, including Facebook, to pay publishers for Webhawk news items posted on their sites. Facebook responded to the proposed law by blocking Australians and publishers from sharing or seeing news on the social network. (CNET was among the news publishers affected by this move.)
The whistleblower disclosures, which include redacted passages from internal Facebook communications, allege the was intentionally broad so that it would prevent access to government and health services pages. At the time, Facebook blamed those mistakes on problems with its computer systems.
The 67-page disclosures, parts of which have been reported by The Wall Street Journal, include Facebook's internal plans to take down "news content" as Australian lawmakers considered voting on the new law. A senior congressional staffer, who requested anonymity because the disclosures haven't been released publicly, provided them to CNET. The whistleblowers aren't named in the disclosures for fear of retaliation.
The disclosures are among a growing string of whistleblower leaks from Facebook, which renamed itself Meta last year. Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, provided a different cache of Facebook documents that prompted hearings in Congress and the UK Parliament. The new disclosures could generate similar governmental investigations in Australia.
Together, the whistleblower disclosures portray the . In response, lawmakers and regulators, who were already skeptical of the tech industry's immense power over global communication, have raised new concerns about the motivations of Facebook executives and their willingness to correct problems on the platform.
In one case, The Journal reported that Meta's Instagram social network had been but failed to act. In another, Haugen accused the company of .
![Mark Zuckerberg and Meta's metaverse]()
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's CEO, has focused his public appearances on discussing new products, rather than answering controversies.
James Martin/CNET
Some of Haugen's whistleblower documents, which were also shared with CNET and a consortium of publications, detailed how Facebook struggles .
Now, the new whistleblowers are accusing Facebook of exerting its power over another government -- and at a time when British, Canadian and are considering similar rules as those in Australia. The whistleblowers have urged the Department of Justice to investigate.
The whistleblower disclosures claim Facebook hadn't followed its standard processes when it began blocking news in Australia. The complaint accused the company of attempting to influence Australia's political process "to maximize the company's negotiating leverage."
In a summary of the disclosures transmitted to authorities, Whistleblower Aid, which is working with the "multiple whistleblowers," wrote: "Facebook Inc. deliberately and knowingly over-blocked critical Australian emergency, health and government online resources as part of a criminal conspiracy to obtain a thing of value, namely favorable regulatory treatment."
Whistleblower Aid is a nonprofit legal organization that helps "individuals who lawfully report government and corporate law breaking." The organization also works with Haugen, the earlier Facebook leaker.