An Update About Changes to Facebook’s Services in Australia • Hacker News Board

Re: An Update About Changes to Facebook’s Services in Australia

#41

Post by adrr » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 1:16 AM UTC

valleyjo wrote: post #12

Barrin92 wrote: post #9

I haven't followed this debate too closely but this seems pretty disingenuous. >The ACCC presumes that Facebook benefits most in its relationship with publishers, when in fact the reverse is true. News represents a fraction of what people see in their News Feed and is not a significant source of revenue for us News may not directly contribute much ad revenue but it surely is a huge driver of engagement on the website…

Facebook can remove news and it will minimally effect engagement. I wonder what happens to the publishers when they lose 2.3BN clicks.

Isn’t that basically what Instagram is? It seems social networks are cutting 3rd party content and focusing solely on UGC.

Question is does it increase or decrease subscriptions to news sites. I can see reasons it going both ways. Lack of traffic to news sites from social decreases subscriptions. Lack of news on social forces people to seek alternatives which increase subscriptions.

Re: An Update About Changes to Facebook’s Services in Australia

#42

Post by dicomdan » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 1:18 AM UTC

umvi wrote: post #37

pawnednow wrote: post #4

Australian government and more specifically Rod sims, the chair of ACCC should get some counselling. Really good counselling. They clearly don't understand how publishing works and have a biased understanding of who is benefitting from this relationship. However, the entire Australian media has been nothing but puppets controlled by murdoch. The one true less biased source is ABC which has been muddied by constant fe…

Why wouldn't the Australian government just make another law making it illegal for Facebook to block sharing of news on Facebook. If you throw enough laws at something, surely you'll get the desired outcome eventually (wealth redistribution from Facebook => struggling newspapers)?

It's not unlikely that Facebook will pull out of Australia for such follow up law, and US will retaliate against Australia economically for driving Facebook out.

Re: An Update About Changes to Facebook’s Services in Australia

#43

Post by MattGaiser » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 1:20 AM UTC

kevyin wrote: post #38

Nevermind the reasoning If the result is no more/fewer news on FB, doesn't that mean it will be a more difficult platform for political parties and Rupert Murdoch's of the world to manipulate?

It will probably hurt independents a lot more though. So while they may lose the most views, they might grow their market share.

Re: An Update About Changes to Facebook’s Services in Australia

#44

Post by Polylactic_acid » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 1:20 AM UTC

dicomdan wrote: post #42

umvi wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldn't the Australian government just make another law making it illegal for Facebook to block sharing of news on Facebook. If you throw enough laws at something, surely you'll get the desired outcome eventually (wealth redistribution from Facebook => struggling newspapers)?

It's not unlikely that Facebook will pull out of Australia for such follow up law, and US will retaliate against Australia economically for driving Facebook out.

Unlikely because newscorp controls the government in both Australia and the US

Re: An Update About Changes to Facebook’s Services in Australia

#45

Post by notbutreally » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 1:20 AM UTC

How much do we have to pay Facebook to do this in the US?

Re: An Update About Changes to Facebook’s Services in Australia

#46

Post by pfundstein » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 1:20 AM UTC

pawnednow wrote: post #4

Australian government and more specifically Rod sims, the chair of ACCC should get some counselling. Really good counselling. They clearly don't understand how publishing works and have a biased understanding of who is benefitting from this relationship. However, the entire Australian media has been nothing but puppets controlled by murdoch. The one true less biased source is ABC which has been muddied by constant fe…

> the entire Australian media has been nothing but puppets controlled by murdoch

You're going a bit heavy on hyperbole there. There's a decent amount of non-murdoch news; ABC, SBS, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, The Conversation, etc.

Re: An Update About Changes to Facebook’s Services in Australia

#47

Post by anon84598 » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 1:21 AM UTC

kevyin wrote: post #38

Nevermind the reasoning If the result is no more/fewer news on FB, doesn't that mean it will be a more difficult platform for political parties and Rupert Murdoch's of the world to manipulate?

Murdoch already has his news distribution systems in place in Australia -- the less other outlets can gain visibility the better as far as he is concerned

Re: An Update About Changes to Facebook’s Services in Australia

#48

Post by gizmonty » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 1:21 AM UTC

dicomdan wrote: post #42

umvi wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldn't the Australian government just make another law making it illegal for Facebook to block sharing of news on Facebook. If you throw enough laws at something, surely you'll get the desired outcome eventually (wealth redistribution from Facebook => struggling newspapers)?

It's not unlikely that Facebook will pull out of Australia for such follow up law, and US will retaliate against Australia economically for driving Facebook out.

Oh how wonderful it would be if Facebook were to pull out of Australia.

Re: An Update About Changes to Facebook’s Services in Australia

#49

Post by jakecopp » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 1:22 AM UTC

pawnednow wrote: post #4

Australian government and more specifically Rod sims, the chair of ACCC should get some counselling. Really good counselling. They clearly don't understand how publishing works and have a biased understanding of who is benefitting from this relationship. However, the entire Australian media has been nothing but puppets controlled by murdoch. The one true less biased source is ABC which has been muddied by constant fe…

I encourage everyone to have a read of the actual draft legislation along with hearing Facebook's reaction to new regulations being imposed on them.

The actual legislation sounds well thought out to me: https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/digital-platforms/news-m...

The FAQs: https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/DPB%20-%20Draft%20news%...

See also the ACCC response to Google's open letter, which contained misinformation: https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/response-to-google-ope...

Re: An Update About Changes to Facebook’s Services in Australia

#50

Post by smcleod » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 1:23 AM UTC

pfundstein wrote: post #46

pawnednow wrote: post #4

Australian government and more specifically Rod sims, the chair of ACCC should get some counselling. Really good counselling. They clearly don't understand how publishing works and have a biased understanding of who is benefitting from this relationship. However, the entire Australian media has been nothing but puppets controlled by murdoch. The one true less biased source is ABC which has been muddied by constant fe…

> the entire Australian media has been nothing but puppets controlled by murdoch You're going a bit heavy on hyperbole there. There's a decent amount of non-murdoch news; ABC, SBS, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, The Conversation, etc.

Yeah they exist and most of them are good (certainly a lot better at least) but it's not what the mainstream majority of "Aussies" read and they don't have the advertising power or control of the Murdoch press here.