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Google: Open Letter to Australians

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Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#121

Post by sytelus »

mgraczyk wrote: post #18
ImaCake wrote: post #6

Link to the draft law is below [0]. Quoted from that page: >The code also includes a set of ‘minimum standards’ for: >providing advance notice of changes to algorithmic ranking and presentation of news; appropriately recognising original news content; and >providing information about how and when Google and Facebook make available user data collected through users’ interactions with news content. This sounds great to…

As somebody who works on ranking and personalization products, I can confidently assure you that you would not prefer a less personalized experience. You don't have to take my word for it though, you can opt-out of personalization on Google here: https://myactivity.google.com/activitycontrols Try it for a month and see if you prefer it.

What would be good and bad examples where personalization excels and fails?

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#122

Post by stirlo »

johnnyYen wrote: post #111
stirlo wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

^ This. I'm hearing heaps of people crying "Murdock" and "Newscorp" but how about local jobs and ownership vs a global conglomerate that doesn't give 2 f#%ks about our tiny 25 million population and takes $4.8 billion offshore while paying only $100 million tax[1]. The Australian Associate Press recently went bankrupt and needed a bailout from philanthropists[2]. As much as you dislike one particular section of old m…

Ironic you should reference the ABC when the legislation specifically excludes the ABC from any benefit other "registered news organisations" may enjoy.

I didn't mention the government funded ABC but rather the Australian Associated Press (AAP) which is a collection of local journalists funded collectively by the large media companies on both the left and right wing.

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#123

Post by jojobas »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #117
jojobas wrote: post #113

Pay corporate income tax here and then will talk.

You talking to Google or News Corp? You're flipping a single-sided coin. Heads you lose, and that's the only option.

Is News Corp pretending it doesn't turn any profit by offsetting it to an Irish entity?

I always understood it's deliberately run at about breakeven, it's a political tool, not a money-making enterprise.

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#125

Post by BLKNSLVR »

discordance wrote: post #119

Google evil etc etc aside, they have been decent custodians of their users data. I don't really want to trust Google, but they behave much better than the Australian government, who recently admitted they spy on their citizens [0], can coerce citizens and companies to install backdoors into their companies software [1]. I trust Murdoch less than the government, and much much less than Google. Remember when Murdoch in…

In regards to parent commenters [0] link, this is the story that got a journalist's home raided by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) because she received leaked information (that turned out to be 100% correct) that the Department for Home Affairs was planning to allow the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) to spy on Australian citizens.

Directly quoting from the linked article:

ASD powers have been a source of controversy for the government, after the AFP raided News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst’s home in June 2019 over a news report suggesting the home affairs department was seeking power for ASD to spy on Australians. Dutton had claimed the story was nonsense despite publicly confirming its substance.

The straight-up lying by one of Australia's highest ranked politicians bodes poorly, and goes hand-in-hand with Federal Police raiding a journalists home. Yet this seems to be the Government that the Australian people want.

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#126

Post by stirlo »

neumann wrote: post #100
stirlo wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fairfax has always provided a counter to newscorp and there's no reason this funding wouldn't be available to any new players that wanted to start up.

There is no Fairfax since 2018, and even then Gina Reinhart owned 20% then. Now, it's channel 9, and having Peter Costello at the helm. So... Yeah, we don't really have a balanced or neutral media landscape. The ABC, The Guardian and a small selection of boutique papers and websites are alone in putting journalism before explicit political narratives now. And well, even the first two in that list heavily rely on clic…

Fairfax still produces daily newspapers with a large readership in Australia's 2 largest cities. To say they don't exist just because their ownership changed is a misnomer.

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#127

Post by dannyw »

Australian here. Fuck News Corp, one of the most corrupt entities in Australia that directly collude and interfere with our elections for the benefit of themselves and Big Coal.

I hope Google don’t fuck around.

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#128

Post by nailer »

DoctorNick wrote: post #98
gitgud wrote: post #91

I initially thought this was going to be about the new [1] anti-encryption law's in Australia... another concerning matter of government intervention... [1] https://fee.org/articles/australia-s-unprecedented-encryptio...

nope, Google doesn't give a shit about that. They just hate having to pay for displaying content from news media.

Keep in mind Google are being forced to display the content AND pay for it.

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#129

Post by kmeisthax »

reaperducer wrote: post #43

To all the people (hopefully Australians) who paint this as the government propping up legacy media: Isn't it better to have control of your media in local, Australian-owned and regulated megacorps, rather than some faceless megacorp in another country?

Does it matter? Transnational corporations are sovereign in all but name. If Google really, really doesn't like a particular local law, they'll pull out of the country (e.g. mainland China and, soon, Hong Kong). The "local, Australian-owned and regulated megacorp" is Rupert Murdoch's media empire, which is currently in bed with the reigning Liberal party. There is no regulation here.

There is a kernel of truth in your post; we do need a better funding mechanism for independently produced news. However, it's hard not to see this as less "preserving independent news" and more "Google should pay for the house organ".

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