Australia must level the playing field between the social media giants and the struggling news industry, a major media figure has urged.

Many of the biggest social media companies, including Meta and X, formerly Twitter, once filled their websites with news content to attract sign-ups and eyeballs.

But now their user bases have grown, the platforms have begun throttling news content and choking traffic to publications.

Instagram users must now explicitly opt in to “political” content, Facebook will soon sunset its news tab and X has stopped showing news headlines and links on posts. 

And in March, Meta – which owns Instagram and Facebook – revealed it would not renew its millions of dollars worth of deals with Australian news publishers under the news media bargaining code.

News Corp Australasia Executive Chair Michael Miller will use his National Press Club address on Wednesday to push social media companies to return to the table.

“What we’re seeing occur in Australia at the moment is an un-level playing field,” he told ABC radio.

“Our communities were at risk of not receiving the quality, trusted local news that they deserve and they’ve become accustomed to.

“Not just our media would suffer, but ultimately our democracy would suffer.”

Social media has fuelled issues like cyberbullying, revenge porn, doxxing, trolling and body image concerns, Mr Miller said.

In recent months, social media’s role in the proliferation of violent content has also been called into question after videos of a stabbing at a Western Sydney church were uploaded to X.

News Corp plays a significant role in the Australian news landscape, owning papers like The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun, The Courier Mail and one of Australia’s most-visited websites, news.com.au.

Overseas, News Corp mogul Rupert Murdoch also owns Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and a host of British tabloids.

But questions have arisen over whether the company is qualified to address these issues.

Shuttered British newspaper News of the World was embroiled in a phone hacking scandal in the 2000s and Fox News was forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars over allegations it had published false statements about voting machines used in the 2020 US election.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said the idea of News Corp lecturing people on ethics was “a bit ridiculous”.

“They’ve got a terrible ethical record,” he told ABC radio.

But Mr Miller maintains the company has a right to advise tech companies.

“We’ve operated as a corporation for 75 years, many of our mastheads are 150-plus years old,” he said.

“We abide by and are subject to Australian law, we meet our social obligations, we give back, we advocate proactively for a better Australia.

“I can’t say the same thing for the tech platforms.”

By Kat Wong in Canberra