Rupert Murdoch renews attacks on Google and Facebook

The News Corp Chairman has criticized Google for taking the publisher’s news articles without compensation and Facebook with failing to adequately reward publishers

Rupert Murdoch renewed his attacks on Google and Facebook during News Corp’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, accusing the tech giants of trying to silence conservative voices and calling for “significant reform.”

The Silicon Valley companies are favourite targets for Murdoch who for years has criticized Google for taking the publisher’s news articles without compensation and Facebook with failing to adequately reward publishers. The public flogging continued, despite News Corp winning concessions from both companies, which earlier this year agreed to pay for the publisher’s content in Australia.

For many years our company has been leading the global debate about Big Digital, said Murdoch. What we have seen in the past few weeks about the practices at Facebook and Google surely reinforces the need for significant reform.

Murdoch accused Facebook’s employees of trying to silence conservative voices, and noted “a similar pattern of selectivity” in Google’s search results. But according to data from Facebook-owned analytics firm CrowdTangle, posts from conservative personalities such as Dan Bongino and Ben Shapiro routinely rank among the most popular on the platform.

Further, the media mogul cited a lawsuit, filed last year by 10 state attorneys general, accusing Google of monopolizing the digital ad market and allegedly working with Facebook to manipulate online auctions where advertisers buy and sell ad space.

Let us be very clear about the consequences of that digital ad market manipulation, said Murdoch. Obviously, publishers have been materially damaged, but companies have also been overcharged for their advertising, and consumers have thus paid too much for products.

Murdoch called for algorithmic transparency — echoing debate in Congress in the wake of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s disclosures about the social network’s business practices.

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