… comes the Facebook decision to turn off access to its platform for local news orgs. (And hundreds of innocent bystanders like the weather bureau, a couple of state health departments, a while bunch of arts organisations, unions, a little dairy farm, and my alien sideboob column here at Substack.)
It’s a fascinating power play, which Facebook will win, because they’re the more powerful player and there is no way they are letting Canberra dictate their business model. Their users, for the most part, don’t give a shit about the blocked media outlets, or the government’s discomfort. The only friction for Zuck’s minions will come from the seemingly random cancelling of a couple of hundred, or maybe a couple of thousand other groups and pages.
They’ll probably sort that out over the next couple of weeks.
But Ninefax, Lord Rupert, the ABC, the Graun and all the other indies who recently cut deals with Google will stay blocked. Unless ScoMo caves.
My take?
Big fucking deal. This is the same category of commercial/political decision as banning Trump. It’s entirely Facebook’s choice to make. And I say that as someone who seems to be caught up in the ban and who thinks of Facebook as the world’s biggest criminal organisation and supporter of terrorism.
It's hilarious. Best possible outcome, in my opinion. Facebook should focus on its knitting: friends and family catch-up.
What's much more hilarious is the level of bleating on supposedly sensible media (including and especially the ABC: probably others but I'm not aware of them...)
The number of people who seem to think that (to take an example from The Conversation) VicHealth or the BoM vanishing from Facebook is somehow equivalent to it vanishing from the web, which of course it hasn't. Still there, same as ever.
Yep an organisation I volunteer for had its page caught up in the ban, probably because we share a lot of 3rd party news and articles from our website on current issues. We seem to be back up and running though, so the Zuck's minions are sorting through the innocent bystanders pretty quickly.
“Bunch of vested interest moguls and their pet politicians throw tantrum” says one talking-head “Facebook needs to understand that people are concerned that, in this country [uk] 50% of advertising is through FB. That’s unacceptable “.
Well, to the big media companies seeing FB eat their lunch, perhaps.
Sympathy for ‘media’ = 0
Support for FB? Hell they don’t need it. They let the massive, truly ginormous user base do the talking..and the engaging.
I am in general agreement. Facebook can tweak their filter to allow community or health pages, but stuff everybody else. Why should Facebook pay Nine because Nine posted some news on their Facebook page? Just go straight to the source if you want news or weather or whatever. Facebook have made a commercial decision. I'm just a little annoyed the Labor party got caught up in the gubbermunt's faux outrage, instead of saying 'so what'.
my main bitch is that , the muppets , rorters , rapists and coal fondlers in government are OUR muppets , in theory we can vote them out ! policy dictated by a foreign mega corporation is not a good thing .....
Tiniest violins being played here at the moment on this one. Not an FB clicker so its pretty irrelevant to me. The whole exercise was probably just a click bait thing writ large.
I am kind of confused on this thing. I agree that content creators should be reimbursed by entities that profit from their work. I thought that's what this shitstorm was about.
But then I understand that the ABC and SBS are not covered by it. If so, is it some kind of cosy deal between the Gov and the commercial players?
But yes, I'm on the zucherbox and still don't care if this helps to screw it.
Yeah, I don't care about FB at all. I only use/have it as a tool to reach out to my readers. Period.
It's hilarious. Best possible outcome, in my opinion. Facebook should focus on its knitting: friends and family catch-up.
What's much more hilarious is the level of bleating on supposedly sensible media (including and especially the ABC: probably others but I'm not aware of them...)
The number of people who seem to think that (to take an example from The Conversation) VicHealth or the BoM vanishing from Facebook is somehow equivalent to it vanishing from the web, which of course it hasn't. Still there, same as ever.
Yep an organisation I volunteer for had its page caught up in the ban, probably because we share a lot of 3rd party news and articles from our website on current issues. We seem to be back up and running though, so the Zuck's minions are sorting through the innocent bystanders pretty quickly.
“Bunch of vested interest moguls and their pet politicians throw tantrum” says one talking-head “Facebook needs to understand that people are concerned that, in this country [uk] 50% of advertising is through FB. That’s unacceptable “.
Well, to the big media companies seeing FB eat their lunch, perhaps.
Sympathy for ‘media’ = 0
Support for FB? Hell they don’t need it. They let the massive, truly ginormous user base do the talking..and the engaging.
I am in general agreement. Facebook can tweak their filter to allow community or health pages, but stuff everybody else. Why should Facebook pay Nine because Nine posted some news on their Facebook page? Just go straight to the source if you want news or weather or whatever. Facebook have made a commercial decision. I'm just a little annoyed the Labor party got caught up in the gubbermunt's faux outrage, instead of saying 'so what'.
my main bitch is that , the muppets , rorters , rapists and coal fondlers in government are OUR muppets , in theory we can vote them out ! policy dictated by a foreign mega corporation is not a good thing .....
Tiniest violins being played here at the moment on this one. Not an FB clicker so its pretty irrelevant to me. The whole exercise was probably just a click bait thing writ large.
I think I read something on twitter from Asher Wolf about this?
I am kind of confused on this thing. I agree that content creators should be reimbursed by entities that profit from their work. I thought that's what this shitstorm was about.
But then I understand that the ABC and SBS are not covered by it. If so, is it some kind of cosy deal between the Gov and the commercial players?
But yes, I'm on the zucherbox and still don't care if this helps to screw it.
Totally their choice. As is mine to not play their game. Can't miss what I never had.
They can, agreed. I just hope that their choices cause them to die.