Facebook's 'reprehensible' move to block news in Australia will have dire consequences, MPs warn | Crypto Craft

Facebook's 'reprehensible' move to block news in Australia will have dire consequences, MPs warn | Crypto Craft

Facebook's 'reprehensible' move to block news in Australia will have dire consequences, MPs warn

From sbs.com.au

Labor's Treasury spokesperson Jim Chalmers says Facebook's decision to ban the sharing of news content will negatively affect people's ability to access critical health news during the coronavirus pandemic. “This will have consequences for people who are trying to access health news during a pandemic,” he told the media on Thursday morning. “It will have consequences for all those people who rely on Facebook to get their news, credible news from credible sources," he said. "This is a mess of the government's making. It is up to the government to tell us what has gone on here and what they are doing to fix it," ... (full story)

Comments / Top
Subscribe

Feb 17, 2021 10:06pm

Well if FB is your source for news it would explain a lot of what is happening in this world. That and the belief that everything you read, based on your belief system, is true and your government leader never lies.

Pretty much sums it all up for me.

3

Feb 18, 2021 6:36pm

Quoting trumps

Disliked

I really don't get this at all. Australian publishers have been complaining that FB has been undermining their capacity to generate income by sharing news items for free to the public. Fair enough, they have. Australian law passed now says if you Want to share our news items on your platform, you must pay for it. Fair enough. FB decides then to stop sharing news items, and is labelled a bully by the UK. How does that make sense? FB has no obligation to share news items. If our news is credible, people will subscribe to the publishers online and/or...

Ignored

I say lets make it global. Facebook was a better place before these News organizations came in. Im tired of seeing politics in my Facebook feed despite the fact I never asked for them. They want to use Facebook Highway and being paid for it.

Goodbye and good riddance. Facebook will be a better place now. I just hope my Canadian government will do the same. The news for the past year have only been negative and this is not good for our health.

2

Feb 18, 2021 3:24am

Quoting enarco

Disliked

Well if FB is your source for news it would explain a lot of what is happening in this world. That and the belief that everything you read, based on your belief system, is true and your government leader never lies.....

Ignored

the sad fact is, that for many in the world FB is actually their source of the "news", and yes most believe, if it is on the internet "it must be true".
the real issue here is, and NONE you are acknowledging is...... that FB , Google etc for decades have simply stolen newsfeed$ from mainstream media published on their sites and collected billion$ of clickbait revenue from it, without paying the original news sources or taxes on the revenues derived.

surely you know this ?

whether the "news " is really Fact checked news or "fake " news is actually irrelevant, it is the credence with which it is given that is the problem, very few readers verify any more, very few readers have the skill sets to research impartially , or even be able to see through the ideologies that our "news " is now laced with ......

and we won;t talk about who is "lying " and who is telling the "truth" - who's"truth " ? will we?

it is actually not dis-similiar to copy and paste sites like FF who also make revenue off mirror newsfeeds

where is Walter Cronkite when we need him?

2

Feb 18, 2021 7:47am

Only a moron would take news from FB.
In fact only a moron would be on FB to begin with.

2

Feb 18, 2021 12:46am

Good Grief! Why would anybody even WANT to get their news from Facebook? Just watch CNN or BBC or something....

2

Feb 19, 2021 1:03pm — Edited

I think FB has made strategic mistake.
The issue is complicated by the FB news aggregation algos. And also but a growing international feeling that the US has been dilatory in application of its own AntiTrust laws.. and concerns about data privacy, and taxation of big tech multinationals at national levels. I suspect this will bring further heat on them on a much wider range of issues.

1

Feb 18, 2021 12:28am

So the govt want to force FB to pay for news items they share.
In response, FB then decide not to share anything.

Now the govt are jumping up and down having a hissy fit??

Govt acting like spoilt brats....

1

Feb 18, 2021 2:17am — Edited

Quoting LloydOz

Disliked

The bloke is not not Australian government. In opposition, like Labour in UK. Obviously. He says FB is credible. He also says Australia is in a corona virus pandemic. Comrades will stay in Opposition until they grow more than 3 neurons.

Ignored

Communications Minister Fletcher, accuses FB of essentially saying the Aust news items on it's pages are not fact checked etc (because FB no longer shares the news items).
Rubbish, that's just a cover story to deflect from the fact that FB no longer shares Aust news items because they are now forcing FB to pay for sharing the items.
Australian governments shamelessly do this type of deflection far too often, thinking we are dim enough to believe it.

1

Feb 18, 2021 1:12pm — Edited

I really don't get this at all.
Australian publishers have been complaining that FB has been undermining their capacity to generate income by sharing news items for free to the public.
Fair enough, they have.

Australian law passed now says if you Want to share our news items on your platform, you must pay for it.
Fair enough.

FB decides then to stop sharing news items, and is labelled a bully by the UK.
How does that make sense?

FB has no obligation to share news items.

If our news is credible, people will subscribe to the publishers online and/or paper copy like they used to.
There is radio, TV etc.

People only rely on FB to get news because they began sharing. Stop sharing and subscription revenue returns.

Happy days 👌

Surely that's a better way of helping ensure quality journalism in this country.

1

Feb 19, 2021 9:08pm — Edited

Quoting LloydOz

Disliked

{quote}Should FB lift that "news" from a public broadcaster ? (BBC in UK, in Australia the ABC, and SBS which these pages have been covering) then so what.... Should there be no agreement, then FB has no right to lift what is someone elses intellectual property. I reckon that is when the war starts, and I am not clear why any govt should be sticking its beak in, really, except to the extent that prevailing laws are inadequate. ....... It is in the public domain and is public property, paid for by taxpayers. ..

Ignored

the topical issues are highlighted here.
In the strict commercial sense FB should only lift news from any source, for which it has a contract and has paid for.
And true, the arguement against taking someone's IP hinges on "who owns the news " ? just because it is in the public domain doesn't mean that it should be stolen to get there, and the public domain usually has not been paid for, it is either freeware or gifted properly, it by definition is not paid for by taxpayers!

As i see it, the $hit fight is over the clickbait associated revenue that the news generates. Hot original news articles are always accompanied by OP Ed opinion, paid opinion and straight blatant in your face advertising.
The other more insidious monetisation of news is the way the news item is said, portrayed, phrased, or framed to fit the idealogical bias of the news organisation issuing it .
Think about this point ? no government , FB or Google, social media agency,or major corporate wants to miss out on the idealogical influence the News has !
Take Trump as the worst current example, all the news about him was mostly phrased in such a way to make him look really bad, a scapegoat for both the 'good things' and 'the bad' things he allegedly did. whether you like him or not his news was always spun in such a way to be negative of him.
Another example is, in New Zealand, by far the majority of News organisations here, are left leaning socialist. there is only one right wing news site , all the others have been shut down for "freedom of speech " reasons. (and you will all understand what is really being said here?)

he who controls the news, controls the idealogy!
he who controls the idealogy controls the people!

(CPSU/KPSS , CCP, Stasi et al.....)

1

Feb 17, 2021 8:08pm

Facebook > Government
Profit > Social Responsibilities
Zuckerberg > People

2

Feb 19, 2021 7:10am

Quoting gravitist

Disliked

Good Grief! Why would anybody even WANT to get their news from Facebook? Just watch CNN or BBC or something....

Ignored

I think that is the point. Someone reposts something from a network on FB and the network wants FB to pay them so FB just says no news is good news and now the whining has begun. FB news isn't made up by FB although the people who post it can often have their own agendas.

1

Feb 18, 2021 7:16pm

Quoting Capelli

Disliked

{quote} I say lets make it global. Facebook was a better place before these News organizations came in. Im tired of seeing politics in my Facebook feed despite the fact I never asked for them. They want to use Facebook Highway and being paid for it. Goodbye and good riddance. Facebook will be a better place now. I just hope my Canadian government will do the same. The news for the past year have only been negative and this is not good for our health.

Ignored

I think in the UK, they have a dedicated news section.
If they want Facebook news, then go to that section.

If they don't want FB news, then they don't see it.

Feb 19, 2021 3:18pm — Edited

FB just pulling all news items to avoid sanctions, until the Govt comes to the table to nut out a deal which they are currently doing.

Once the Govt stops acting like a self righteous bully and affords MZ some courtesy, then progress will be made and we can all go back to FB for our news

Feb 17, 2021 8:40pm

I tried to post this news about 1:00pm this afternoon
but for some reason was blocked
https://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/3...g-news-content

Feb 18, 2021 1:45am

The bloke is not not Australian government. In opposition, like Labour in UK.

Obviously. He says FB is credible. He also says Australia is in a corona virus pandemic.

Comrades will stay in Opposition until they grow more than 3 neurons.

Feb 19, 2021 2:27pm — Edited

Quoting harcos

Disliked

{quote} I think that is the point. Someone reposts something from a network on FB and the network wants FB to pay them so FB just says no news is good news and now the whining has begun. FB news isn't made up by FB although the people who post it can often have their own agendas.

Ignored

That "someone" is FB. {edit - this is confusing, having read some interpretations - some say that outlets unilaterally post on FB, I find that odd. How? Are there just generic links to say SBS?}. Should FB lift that "news" from a public broadcaster, (BBC in UK, in Australia the ABC, and SBS which these pages have been covering) then so what. It is in the public domain and is public property, paid for by taxpayers. A public good. Australia got pretty annoyed when FB pulled this public stuff. I'm just wondering whether there could be a case for Australia actually paying FB to repost this community stuff. Dunno.

FB is grumbling that it is being required to pay for "news" collected by private outfits. Not a public good, although it may have a public interest of course, but that isn't relevant. I don't know of details of any commercial agreement between FB and these privateers, and that is how it ought to be.

Should there be no agreement, then FB has no right to lift what is someone elses intellectual property. I reckon that is when the war starts, and I am not clear why any govt should be sticking its beak in, really, except to the extent that prevailing laws are inadequate. That's not hard to imagine.

This kinda issue in media has been around since forever. FB is a newbie in form only, and its nothing novel that a publisher has market power (FB would contend that it is not a publisher and that is a story in itself).

Trader#35B6

Feb 20, 2021 1:44am

Quoting aquavox

Disliked

{quote} the topical issues are highlighted here. In the strict commercial sense FB should only lift news from any source, for which it has a contract and has paid for.

Ignored

"The other more insidious monetisation of news is the way the news item is said, portrayed, phrased, or framed to fit the idealogical bias of the news organisation issuing it ."

Of course, and this issue is documented in studies investigating narratives in news. I recently read a book by an Aussie documenting the news narrative that was given to the world about the 2004 Beslan siege. The principles are nothing too surprising unless you are living in a basement. The finer details were all a bit new to me, as it was dealing with Russia and translations and stuff.

This becomes important when there is market power, and there exists little or no independent competition, and when it does exist, the big player buys them (as FB has done with say Instagram and WhatsApp).

This is also concerning when commercial interests have to compete with a free source such as a public broadcaster in the ABC/SBS in Australia (with its own strong ideological interests contrary to its Charter) with about three or four TV stations more than a handful of radio stations, and free websites (possible similar in New Zealand?).

Perhaps something that is not surprising to readers here is that FB played a move that wasn't in its own commercial and strategic interests. By doing what it did, it in fact admitted that it does indeed have market power. The ultimate admission. Oops!! That's when anti-completive authorities become kinda interested. They got teeth.

Second, and what confirms this, is that the Zuckerman is on speed dial to no less than the Aussie Federal Treasurer. Huh? I'd like to see some unfettered competition to FB in its news dissemination function,
for those people who need and desire that - rather than fixing FB.

Feb 20, 2021 1:46am

oops, if that rant gets through, that was me, forgot to log in...again.

Story Stats

Feb 17, 2021 7:41pm
Posted by
Newsstand

Low Impact Breaking

19

8,321