Expert at Facebook’s “insolent” action decoding in Australia: What does Mark Zuckerberg really want?

With the latest move in Australia, Facebook is trying to exert its monopoly power, said Peter Lewis, director of the Center for Responsible Technology at the Australian Institute. According to Lewis, the social media giant has built a huge platform and allowed its users to access it for free. In return, they lower the privacy of users by collecting data and monetizing that information.

” I think they are reinforcing their monopoly position in this part of the digital world ,” Lewis told CNBC.

Mark Zuckerberg’s move sparked a debate in Australia about the alternatives. Currently, there are no products of any business that can replace Facebook. ” Public digital infrastructure is a long game, not something someone can do overnight ,” Lewis said.

Meanwhile, Australian Treasury Secretary Josh Frydenberg said he had a chat with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and that they will continue talking later this week. According to Mr. Frydenberg, the government and Facebook will work to solve the problems that still exist.

However, Mr. Frydenberg did not say the solution would be. Before that, the Minister himself and many senior officials in the Australian Government have also voiced their opposition to Facebook’s arrogant behavior. Even the Prime Minister of Australia also called Facebook “insolent” and announced that this country would not give in.

In fact, this action not only shows the arrogance of the world’s largest social network, but also a strategic attempt. Mr. Lewis described it as an accident caused by a car moving at a slow speed.

“Facebook offered a nuclear option and I guess their idea was to kill chickens and scare monkeys,” Lewis said.

Last week, Google also pushed the situation to a climax when it threatened to shut down its search site in Australia. However, they changed their moves through the decision to seek collaboration with local publishers. Facebook, on the other hand, jumped into the hole. The only question now is how will they do it, Lewis said.

For its part, Facebook said its actions won’t have much of an impact on users. Specifically, less than 4% of the content people view on their News Feed comes from news and it brings very little profit to the company.

Suranga Seneviratne, a lecturer at the University of Sydney School of Computer Science, believes the move will have little impact on users across Australia. However, others believe that Facebook deleting verified sources on its platform in the context of misinformation would be extremely serious behavior, like shooting itself in the leg.

Google and Facebook are the two leading companies in digital advertising in Australia. In the September report last year, for every $ 100 that the country’s advertisers spent, $ 77.26 went to Google ($ 53) and Facebook ($ 28). Traditional sites take only $ 19 for the rest.