Thread by @jason_kint

So Facebook was absolutely torched earlier today at a hearing before Canada Parliament while trying to prevent legislation mirroring the Australia law they failed to stop which is now working as planned. Facebook torchings can be entertaining.

Shall I post some video? /1

First, some housekeeping up front by MP to establish when Facebook flipped out by blog post last Friday night by claiming it was never given an opportunity to testify and then threatened to block all news in Canada, it turns out Facebook never even requested to testify. /2

This was super interesting as questions turned to Facebook’s intentional chaos in Australia. MP probes whistleblower claim a FB special ops team handling Australia signed additional NDAs specific to the project and whether Canadians have also done same. Watch the squirming. /3

Lordy, when the MPs read through the WSJ whistleblower report on how Facebook allegedly worked to intimidate Australia parliament, it sounds worse every time. /4

MP then dives in deeper on the technical details of the whistleblower report which showed Facebook didn’t use a standard “canary method” to safely roll out blocking of news allowing many many pages of civil society, health and medical pages to also be blocked in process. /5

Another MP steps in, Facebook once again nailed down for “whining” about not being asked to testify then showing up and failing to answer legitimate questions of trust. Interruption midway by MP clearly running interference for Facebook (Conservative, more shortly). /6

Brutal. “The takedown is going according to plan.” /7

MP then labels Facebook’s threats and executions in Australia and Canada as “robber baron tactics.” New descriptor for me. But the shoe fits. /8

And a third MP steps up and again dives into the brutal details of the Wall Street Journal whistleblower report on Australia commending the importance of this good journalism up top. 🙏🏽 /9

“I was not involved” and “I am not aware as well” are the response of the two Facebook witnesses as to the incredibly damning actions and communications by Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and Campbell Brown shared by the whistleblower to the WSJ and government agencies. /10

Also interesting line of questions to get at decision making and approvals from Zuckerberg. We’ve seen this show previously. The buck stops with MZ but decisions are made by an unidentified group. Of course, these people can’t block news for an entire country without MZ. /11

You’re damn right I ordered the code red. No, actually they continue to dodge answers but correct news won’t be blocked for 21 million people without approval from the very top. /12

Oooh. Super good question. MP notes how Facebook intentionally amplified and gave priority to authoritative news brands around the 2020 US elections which certainly calls into question Facebook’s argument news has no value to the company. /13

Wow, crazy to see MP jump in again to defend Facebook and its witness. Oh now, Facebook is being “badgered” she claims. Watch. It’s a bad look. You wouldn’t have this from either party in the U.S. /14

“I think Ms. Thomas watches too much Law and Order although it is good for the Conservatives to stand up and defend Facebook…” /15

To Facebook…ooomph. “do you know if your company is planning to threaten the government of the United States of America”…as it also has similar legislation before it. /17

Thx. just wanted to make sure it wasn’t missed as another Parliament dug into evidence of Facebook’s bad behaviors. Tip of the hat to the MPs in the videos (@lisahepfner @AHousefather @Chris_Bittle) and WSJ for its outstanding report. (@JeffHorwitz @keachhagey @Mike_Cherney) /eof

Looping this with the live thread from the hearing. Again, this was Facebook testimony up in Canada today where Mark Zuckerberg still has an active subpoena to testify.

https://twitter.com/jason_kint/status/1586035684200308737

“They don’t want it to spread.” - @BGrueskin. For those who instead want to hear directly from a journalist on how the same code has worked in Australia and why FB wanted to isolate it there, I highly recommend @BGrueskin. He spoke to it here: .

Grueskin also published a written report around the same time the former chief of the Australian consumer and competition agency wrote his own which he testified to in Canada. All good.

https://twitter.com/jason_kint/status/1529581044793581569

Meanwhile credit to @Kantrowitz for being one of the few US reporters who tried to pin Facebook down when speaking to one of their top executives. Clegg says he didn’t want to do what they did in Australia which is quite a statement considering the above.

https://twitter.com/jason_kint/status/1542672554007187457