INDIA NEWS
March 1-15, 2021 - Vol 1, Issue 17
NEWS FROM AUSTRALIA
India-Australia partnership to play important role in post-Covid world: Modi New Delhi, Feb 19 (IANS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that a strong IndiaAustralia partnership will play an important role in shaping the post-Covid world. The statement came a day after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison vowed to move ahead with his government’s proposed laws that will ensure the US media tech giants like Facebook pay for publishing news media content. Incidentally, the Modi government is also pushing back against the misuse of the US social media platforms for mobilising violence over domestic reforms in India. On Thursday, Modi had spoken to Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the phone. Both the leaders, while reiterating their commitment to consolidate their comprehensive strategic partnership, discussed regional issues of common interest. The two looked forward to working together for peace, prosperity and security in the Indo-Pacific. In a virtual address on Friday at the award ceremony of the India Australia Circular Economy Hackathon, Prime Minister Modi said that Indian and
Australian youth, innovators and entrepreneurs will be at the forefront of strengthening partnership over the circular economy. In June last year, Prime Minister Modi and Morrison had discussed the possibility of organising a hackathon on circular economy. Modi said he was glad the idea was realised so soon. Circular Economy, he said, can be a key step in solving many of the challenges. “Recycling
and reusing things, eliminating waste, and improving resource efficiency must become part of our lifestyles,” he stressed. The hackathon has seen innovative solutions from Indian and Australian students, startups and entrepreneurs. “I have no doubt that your innovations will inspire our two countries to take the lead in circular economy solutions. And, for that, we must now also explore ways to scale-up and incubate these ideas,” he said.
Not to be intimidated by facebook after news ban: Australian PM Canberra, Feb 19 (IANS): Australian-Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called for curbing Facebook’s influence, after the technology giant banned Australians from accessing some
www.indianews.com.au
news content on the social media platform in response to the government’s proposed media bargaining code. The pages of health departments, governments, fire services and
the Bureau of Meteorology were also wiped, the Xinhua news agency reported. In a post on Facebook on Thursday, Morrison vowed that his government would not be
facebook.com/indianewsaustralia
“intimidated” by the move.
time in two days.
“Facebook’s actions to unfriend Australia today, cutting off essential information services on health and emergency services, were as arrogant as they were disappointing,” he said.
Members of Parliament (MPs) on Thursday slammed the decision by Facebook.
“These actions will only confirm the concerns that an increasing number of countries are expressing about the behaviour of Big-Tech companies who think they are bigger than governments and that the rules should not apply to them,” added Morrison. “We will not be intimidated by Big-Tech seeking to pressure our Parliament as it votes on our important News Media Bargaining Code.” Under the media bargaining code, technology giants including Facebook and Google would be forced to pay Australian news outlets for their content. The lower house of the Australian parliament, the House of Representatives, passed the legislation on Wednesday night, paving the way for the Senate to pass it into law. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Friday morning that he had spoken to Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, about the news ban for the second
Greg Hunt, minister for health, said that he was concerned that it could lead to the spread of irresponsible misinformation as Australia prepares to begin administering Covid-19 vaccines next week. His concerns were echoed by Omar Khorshid, President of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), who said in a statement that Facebook was “putting the health of Australians at risk.” William Easton, managing director of Facebook Australia and New Zealand, said in a statement on Thursday that the law proposed in Australia “fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content.” According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Simon Milner, Facebook’s head of public policy for the Asia-Pacific, said the blocking of access to nonnews pages reflected what they argued was a broad definition of “news” as defined in the law.
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