Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia • Hacker News Board

Re: Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia

#291

Post by tomComb » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:16 AM UTC

hilbert42 wrote: post #285

jjcm wrote: post #232

I live in Australia and while I'm excited to see less Facebook use, I see a lot of comments saying things like, "good, Facebook monetized an addiction model and this curbs that". While true, the proposed law that has pushed them to do this is incredibly dangerous. The law doesn't just apply to Facebook, it applies to whoever the Treasurer of Australia[0] says it applies to - it isn't metrics/rules based: https://i.im…

"I live in Australia and while I'm excited to see less Facebook use, I see a lot of comments saying things like, "good, Facebook monetized an addiction model and this curbs that". While true, the proposed law that has pushed them to do this is incredibly dangerous." You're absolutely right and I'm also horrified by the implications, and I would be even more so if the circumstances were more normal. The trouble is tha…

So the law is horrifying, but you really hate these companies so it's OK. Even if I agree with you about these companies isn't this an excess of 'ends justify the means'?

Re: Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia

#292

Post by incompatible » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:24 AM UTC

bobnamob wrote: post #253

jjcm wrote: post #232

I live in Australia and while I'm excited to see less Facebook use, I see a lot of comments saying things like, "good, Facebook monetized an addiction model and this curbs that". While true, the proposed law that has pushed them to do this is incredibly dangerous. The law doesn't just apply to Facebook, it applies to whoever the Treasurer of Australia[0] says it applies to - it isn't metrics/rules based: https://i.im…

Fb may have overshot. They've not only blocked news pages but gov pages as well. Most people I know in aus have been getting covid updates purely through government body social media posts. These are now blocked.

I guess these sites aren't news organizations that would be covered by the proposed media law. Facebook is probably just trying to emphasise its point. Likewise, in restricting the availability of non-Australian news sites to users in Australia.

Re: Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia

#293

Post by danielheath » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:26 AM UTC

TurkishPoptart wrote: post #235

danielheath wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You refer to the activists who successfully protected their quality of life by refusing to let someone else use technology to ruin it. An apt comparison.

I'm sorry I have to tell you this, but they were not successful.

The luddites obtained numerous concessions and retired comfortable. Not clear how that’s unsuccessful.

Re: Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia

#294

Post by stirlo » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:33 AM UTC

As an Australian this morning my Facebook feed is a bit of a wasteland. None of my friends were really sharing anything so the only content in my feed is now ads and posts from groups I'm members of.

All of the "news" has been removed, with them the manufactured outrage, toxic comments and political rants. It actually feels far closer to the Facebook of 2008 that I actually enjoyed rather than the "engagement" machine of 2020.

Obviously the publishers will be hurt by this, particularly smaller ones without organic traffic. But it also feels like a lot of the "engagement" Facebook had been pursuing has been removed too. I wonder how this will affect usage as currently there's little in my feed that would encourage me to open the app every day.

Re: Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia

#295

Post by pochamago » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:35 AM UTC

t0mas88 wrote: post #118

pochamago wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cynical streak in me would suggest that now is a popular time to criticize major tech organs for their relationship to news, and the Australian government is hoping to use that to funnel money from US companies to Australian ones.

You could argue that taxes were designed before the "you are the product" age. If Apple sells a phone in Australia to a local customer, they pay Australian sales tax and possibly import dues to get the phone into the country. When Facebook sells data from an Australian user to a random advertiser, all tax is due in Ireland/Netherlands or some other tax haven and Australia makes nothing. So while this approach with ne…

While you're right that there's a reasonable argument, I can't say it's one I agree with. I already strongly dislike the change in US tax law that now requires all e-commerce companies to adjust their sales tax based on the location of the consumer. It added a bunch of new bureaucratic overhead for us on top of negating one of the competitive fringe benefits of having a business in a small state instead of California. And it mostly just seems arbitrary to me which way that tax swings, rather than intrinsically fair.

Re: Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia

#296

Post by stirlo » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:35 AM UTC

indymike wrote: post #126

pb7 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The post says news makes up 4% of the feed content.[0] [0] https://about.fb.com/news/2021/02/changes-to-sharing-and-vie...

What I'm looking for is what percentage of engagement is attributed to that 4% of the feed content.

From looking at my feed now I'd suggest its far more than 4%. All of the manufactured outrage and angry posting on news stories has disappeared leaving my feed with a few group posts and a bunch of ads.

Re: Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia

#297

Post by ehsankia » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:38 AM UTC

vineyardmike wrote: post #206

djoldman wrote: post #156

The messaging on this tech vs news publishers in Australia is pretty intense. Any site that doesn't want google to index a page can add: to the page and it will not be listed when someone searches Google (as far as I know), thereby preventing all the alleged stealing/siphoning/etc of revenue/profits from news sites. Am I wrong here? If the above is true, what's really going on here is that content producers got toget…

> Any site that doesn't want google to index a page... They want to be indexed, they just also want to get paid. The root issue is that media companies no longer make $$$ from ads, instead google does and they want that money back. This is "silly" law to accomplish that goal.

> The root issue is that media companies no longer make $$$ from ads

Ding ding ding. This has always been about newspapers no longer being the best place to advertise. It's old media trying to hold onto the little power they have, and honestly the only reason they haven't been dismissed entirely is because as a society, we still value journalism, but the likes of Murdoch are now abusing that fact that entrench by lobbying for these outlandish laws.

Re: Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia

#298

Post by mda » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:43 AM UTC

Sephr wrote: post #283

xenomachina wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that even a headline with a link counts. I've also heard that, unlike Facebook, Google doesn't have the option to say no. It'll be interesting to see if the newspapers start arguing that Facebook should be exempt, once all of their traffic from Facebook dries up.

> Google doesn't have the option to say no What does that mean? Surely Google could remove their entire presence from Australia if they felt like it.

Why? Even if Google closes shop in Australia they can still use Google, web is quite big.

Re: Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia

#299

Post by bardan » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:44 AM UTC

llacb47 wrote: post #124

New error message being displayed on facebook: https://i.imgur.com/sxHaAUg.png

Am I missing a detail or does it seem retributive for Facebook to block Australian news sources globally? Isn't the issue with the Australian market alone?

Re: Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia

#300

Post by 0xy » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:45 AM UTC

gkmcd wrote: post #258

DavidSJ wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a particular media company that currently dominates the media landscape here What is this company, out of curiosity? My guess is ABC, but I don't know.

As others have started, when looking at events in Australia, you can consider the currently-governing Liberal party (economically liberal, socially conservative) and News Corp as effectively the same organisation. On the other hand, the Liberal party is very hostile to the public service in general and the ABC in particular.

They should be hostile to the ABC, because their journalistic standards are terrible. I've reported 3 factual inaccuracies to them and all of them took more than a month to retract. In one case, the inaccuracy affected the entire premise of the article.

ABC's standards are that it's okay to lie as long as you retract it a month later in a tiny 10pt foot note.

On the other hand, I've personally reported a similar article inaccuracy to a News Corp writer and he replied in 10 minutes, issuing a retraction.

Similarly, I reported an article inaccuracy in a Fairfax website and they retracted in less than 2 days. No reply but as long as it's corrected I don't mind.

SBS is even worse, they actually have zero accountability for online operations.