"Facebook threatens Press saying: 'Work with us or end up in a hospice’"

thesun.uk

FACEBOOK has been accused of threatening media firms into working with them by saying their businesses would end up “in a hospice” if they didn’t.

Campbell Brown, Facebook’s global head of news partnerships, is said to have told a group of Australian media executives that their businesses would die without their help, and that Mark Zuckerberg “doesn’t care” about publishers.

According to The Australian, as part of a four-hour closed-door meeting with Ms Brown, the top exec for the social media giant said: “We will help you revitalise journalism … in a few years the reverse looks like I’ll be holding your hands with your dying ­business like in a hospice.”

Five sources present at the meeting confirmed the comments.

She was also reported to have said: “Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t care about publishers but is giving me a lot of leeway and concessions to make these changes”.

She added: ““We are not interested in talking to you about your traffic and referrals anymore. That is the old world and there is no going back – Mark wouldn’t agree to this.”