In the midst of a pandemic, where the spread of fake news can be deadly, Facebook has taken perhaps its most extreme decision yet—it blocked news feeds in Australia in a surprise escalation of a dispute with the government. The disagreement centres around a planned Australian law which would require Facebook and Google to reach commercial deals to pay news outlets whose links drive traffic to their platforms, or agree a price through arbitration.

The move by the platform is shocking and its impact could be disastrous. Through this action, credible fact-checking organisations are blocked whereas conspiracy theorists and fake news peddlers are still free to publish their content. Facebook has already proven time and again that its own algorithms and manpower cannot be trusted to make the exchange of information more reliable.

Facebook as a private company technically has the right to block services if it feels its revenues are being compromised. But media rights organisations argue that Facebook and Google have become such mega-companies and the nature of their services are so imperative that such change in their policies can have too powerful an effect on the world for any company to have. These social media sites have been responsible for coups, rise in terrorism and white supremacy and conspiracy theory movements which threaten to overthrow governments.

Considering how big these companies were getting, a clash between them and a state was inevitable. Facebook is relying on Australia to back down—but it cannot. International support must be lent so that companies cannot blackmail countries like this. How it goes down in this situation with Australia will affect Facebook’s dealings with other states too. Several other countries are also undergoing disputes with how social media is to be regulated—it is important to keep an even playing field.