Australia's allies have not jumped to offer support following the Facebook decision to block news and other sites.
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While audiences pushed the story to the top of the most-viewed lists for most major news outlets in Australia's allies, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison was posting on Facebook to say he was in regular contact with leaders of other nations about it, their governments have remained silent.
A British parliamentary committee chair overseeing the media industry, Julian Knight, spoke to media outlets on Thursday to call Facebook's action "bullying". But neither Number 10 Downing Street, the White House, the Beehive in Wellington, nor any of their key diplomats have commented.
"I think it's staggeringly irresponsible - at a time when we are facing a plethora of fake news and disinformation in relation to the Covid vaccine," Mr Knight told the BBC.
"This is not just about Australia. This is Facebook putting a marker down, saying to the world that 'if you do wish to limit our powers... we can remove what is for many people a utility'."
Australia has had senior government contact with India, Japan and the United States in the 24 hours since Facebook implemented its decision, and the proposed media laws that prompted the decision have previously been raised broadly with Australia's allies.
"I am in regular contact with the leaders of other nations on these issues," Mr Morrison said on Facebook on Thursday. "We simply won't be intimidated, just as we weren't when Amazon threatened to leave the country and when Australia drew other nations together to combat the publishing of terrorist content on social media platforms."
Australia's Facebook unfriending was a top story for the BBC, MSNBC, CNN - but not Fox News where the Rupert Murdoch's Fox Corporate acknowledged it only as a minor story for its Fox Business network.
The US government has already written to an inquiry into the proposed laws to urge Australia to shelve them.
"In the view of the United States, it would be preferable to pursue additional market study and consultation to identify a specific market failure that might be addressed first though a voluntary code, and if demonstrably ineffective, through Australia's regulatory rule-making process where stakeholders can participate by weighing in on options and providing evidence in support of or opposition to specific proposals," the US trade representative's submission states.
"We respectfully request that Australia reconsider whether legislation is needed."
In the US, Facebook and Google are under pressure ahead of two major congressional hearings into online misinformation on their platforms and toughening antitrust laws.
A bipartisan US congressional effort is hoping to end anticompetitive conduct in digital markets, identified in a report published by the House judicial committee last year concerned by the practices of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google.
Australia's Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has spoken with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg again on Friday.
"We talked through their remaining issues and agreed our respective teams would work through them immediately," Mr Frydenberg tweeted. "We'll talk again over the weekend. I reiterated Australia remains committed to implementing the code."