The gall of FB mentioning the importance of news in a democratic society. They have arguably done irreversible net bad for democracies. Let em bow out.
Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia
11–20 of 478 posts
Re: Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia
#12I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I think I'm going to side with FB on this. The Australian government is once again showing absolute disregard when it comes to understanding technology, and its signature heavy handed approach to regulation.
One recent quote from the former prime minister when Australia was planning to introduce backdoors to end-to-end encryption: > "The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia"
Oh my god this is a real thing...
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/07/australian-pm-calls-en...
Re: Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia
#13I use FB as an easy way to garner news from several locations at once. Of course FB uses that to litter my 'news feed' with junk (eg suggestions of all kinds). So I'm two minds about this being a problem for me (an Aussie).
However, when I read this sob story by FB :
> publishers willingly choose to post news on Facebook, as it allows them to sell more subscriptions, grow their audiences and increase advertising revenue.
...I know that's not the truth. A lot of the news I read is the same as the free-to-air news that I get across all tv channels (sbs, abc*), so this notion that they'll be losing money anyway is a bit of a misnomer.
*abc is the same as the US's pbs
Re: Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is the Australian government misunderstanding? They wanted a better deal for domestic news media, they are getting a better deal for domestic news media: https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/google-nine-agree-... https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56101859 The Australian government's approach is working.
Are they? Surely Australian companies are now also forbidden from sharing their stories on Facebook.
Yes. It was of no value to them anyway. That's what the legislation is about: preventing platforms with market dominance capturing most of the advertising revenue with no real return to the organizations producing the content.
Re: Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia
#15Could someone summarize both positions? It seems pretty reasonable to me - my understanding is that Australia wants Google and Facebook to pay lump sums to have their content on their platforms (as opposed to per-click). Google and Facebook can basically say yes or no. How is this different than, say, The New York Times saying the same thing about their content?
Re: Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
One recent quote from the former prime minister when Australia was planning to introduce backdoors to end-to-end encryption: > "The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia"
Oh my god this is a real thing... https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/07/australian-pm-calls-en...
> Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people's ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise.
- Donald Horne, 1964
Re: Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia
#17The gall of FB mentioning the importance of news in a democratic society. They have arguably done irreversible net bad for democracies. Let em bow out.
Did you RTFA? They're having to put content moderation guards in-place:
- To stop Australian publishers from sharing any content on FB
- Prevent International or Australian news from being viewed or shared by Australians
Re: Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia
#18Could someone summarize both positions? It seems pretty reasonable to me - my understanding is that Australia wants Google and Facebook to pay lump sums to have their content on their platforms (as opposed to per-click). Google and Facebook can basically say yes or no. How is this different than, say, The New York Times saying the same thing about their content?
I think this article on simple linking vs. previewing sums up the issue:
https://theconversation.com/webs-inventor-says-news-media-ba...
Re: Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are they? Surely Australian companies are now also forbidden from sharing their stories on Facebook.
Yes. It was of no value to them anyway. That's what the legislation is about: preventing platforms with market dominance capturing most of the advertising revenue with no real return to the organizations producing the content.
Sure, but now no one is getting the advertising revenue. So the domestic news companies are not better off, the best case scenario is that they are exactly as they were, but most likely they are worse off since they simply don't even get the traffic.
Re: Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia
#20Does it take effect today?