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Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia

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

#381

Post by abiogenesis »

el_dev_hell wrote: post #365
abiogenesis wrote: post #318

> Google Search is inextricably intertwined with news and publishers do not voluntarily provide their content. On the other hand, publishers willingly choose to post news on Facebook, as it allows them to sell more subscriptions, grow their audiences and increase advertising revenue. This is technically not correct. Publishers can opt out from Google Search if they want to, so one may also argue that they willingly c…

Not to defend Facebook, but a failure to opt-out is not really the same as volunteering. I find the argument made by Facebook to be sound. They're making a comparison between Google crawling the web and indexing content vs. a news site intentionally posting their content to Facebook. The difference between getting your webpage crawled and explicitly posting on a public forum is significant. I read their comment as "u…

True, but you have to opt-out from Facebook too if an end user shares the link. Their argument only works if the news outlet shares the link.

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

#382

Post by abiogenesis »

hippari wrote: post #373
abiogenesis wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who do you charge when the brakes don't work on your car? When the airbags don't activate? When your rain sensor doesn't work? Believe it or not, your car is not that primitive when compared to a self-driving one in terms of the number of things it does autonomously.

Isn't it the case that car manufacturers will have to issue a recall on defective models ?

Yes, and the same holds for self driving cars. I fail to see the difference.

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

#383

Post by NamTaf »

pedalpete wrote: post #227

I live in Australia, so have a dog in this fight. I'm kinda excited to see how this pans out. I don't use FB for news, that's not what a "social network" is for. It's for keeping in touch with friends, sharing photos, etc etc. Because I don't interact with news on FB, I already see very little of it, but I'm hoping this change makes FB the place for sharing our lives again, as opposed to just sharing links to media t…

I am also Aussie and agree with this.

FB has worked hard to make itself the walled garden of “internet”. It tries to encourage people to use the FB search box to find news agencies, brands, etc. rather than the URL box.

The monopoly positions of tech giants and their efforts to build walled gardens is the real problem. The fact that they’re where everyone consumes news media is a byproduct of that. We’ve seen the harmful damage it does to democracy and to society in general.

This legislation is stupid, and attempts to place stupid demands on the tech giants such as sharing algorithms. It’s a blatant attempt to kowtow to Uncle Rupert, with some funds also regrettably going to those dirty socialists at the government-owned news media organisations on the side to make it a little less obviously on the nose.

However, I think FB was more stupid to not just follow the Google approach and negotiate it down to a dilute bother, in effect paying a chump change tax to retain that monopoly position. Aussies are notoriously apathetic about any issue which doesn’t directly affect them. FB has made a tactical misstep here by making the issue affect everyone.

I hope this is a step towards smashing that walled garden. I hope it just ends up teaching Aussies to go to the actual websites of organisations whose content they want to view. I hope FB withers back down to being the place you check a few times a day max to see what your friends are doing and to see some memes, rather than where people endlessly doomscroll and never leave.

The Aussie government does not have the clout to challenge these monopolies directly, but but this legislation starts that process then they will have Steven Bradburyed [1] their way to a fantastic outcome.

The reduction of these all-encompassing walled gardens will be to the betterment of society as a whole.

Now we have to start dismantling the NewsCorp behemoth as well.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Bradbury

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

#384

Post by hippari »

abiogenesis wrote: post #351
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I absolutely want to ban self-driving cars that behave in ways no human can explain or understand! The mere idea that anyone would think that should be legal is borderline insane . All you are doing here is convincing me that tech companies are just runaway trains with nobody at the controls!

We can't even explain all physical phenomena, so good luck with banning anything that depends on the gravity of earth to function, because we don't know what gravity is.

But gravitational laws stay unchanged for millenials isn't it ? If I toss an apple, it will falls down. If I throw it fast enough, it goes into orbital mode.

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

#385

Post by ma2rten »

baash05 wrote: post #332
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 agree 100% The tech community gives solid and reasoned warnings against the law, and they are ignored. Google warns against the law, and caves. Facebook warns against the law and stands up. I think FB and Google and Twitter are the only companies that can really win this. Facebook didn't back down. Good on them.

I have not been following this closely, but if I understand correctly google would have to leave australia altogther if they didn't strike deals. It sounds like facebook had the option of just removing news.

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

#386

Post by shanecp »

FB took the right decision. I wish Google and others will do the same. Like many others have said, I don't like some things that Google and Facebook does, but for this, I believe FB took the right decision. The bill is so vague, and it can be interpreted to say anything that the Government wants it to say. This isn't to protect journalism, it's a backdoor to funnel money to Newscorp.

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

#387

Post by nitemice »

King-Aaron wrote: post #347

It's not just news they blocked today. The DFES (Department of Fire and Emergency Services) page is down - i.e. no bushfire or flood alerts showing up. Their entire page is gutted. There's some government run domestic violence and community service pages that are wiped. Though hilariously, the local LNP candidate's page is gone, which in the midst of a state election campaign is probably pretty hard for them. I get t…

They've blocked any page that provides news, as defined by the code:

core news content means content that reports, investigates or explains:

a) issues or events that are relevant in engaging Australians in public debate and in informing democratic decision-making; or

b) current issues or events of public significance for Australians at a local, regional or national level

DFES, BOM & other government services would fall under definition b. Candidate page would fall under definition a.

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

#388

Post by nitemice »

andrewinardeer wrote: post #266

The Bureau of Meteorology, a government department that provides forecasts has just tweeted that their Facebook page has been impacted by this change which is odd as this is not a media company and provides arguably vitally important information to mariners and other transport modes. It looks like the blast radius from this decision is impacting organizations that is out of scope of this legislation. https://twitter.…

Facebook has blocked any page that provides news, as defined by the code, rather than just organisations covered by the code:

core news content means content that reports, investigates or explains:

a) issues or events that are relevant in engaging Australians in public debate and in informing democratic decision-making; or

b) current issues or events of public significance for Australians at a local, regional or national level

Weather info & especially anything emergency-related is covered by that second definition.

The definition of organisation covered by the code is stupid & arbitrary anyway. It's heavily weighted towards existing incumbents (requiring $150K revenue), and makes things even harder for an independent trying to compete.

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

#389

Post by jfoster »

catmanjan wrote: post #268
echevil wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does Australia have businesses in similar model like Facebook? Or are you talking about completely different models?

I don't believe we do, but I think the government may be thinking that now would be an excellent opportunity for someone to give it a go (our prime minister has a funny saying "if you have a go, you will get a go")

I haven't read the legislation so I don't know for sure, but from what I understand about it, it might be an even better time to start a news media company.

Just by publishing, Google are compelled to negotiate with you on the price to license something that they are being forced to license? I can only imagine that there is or will be some mechanism that allows them off the hook, otherwise it's only a matter of time until they have to leave Australia.

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

#390

Post by lethologica »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #372
enneff wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At greater expense than the original plan! And now we are shortly going to have to roll out fiber anyway. It makes me so angry.

How Labor haven't turned that into a win is beyond me. The Libs are lying sacks of burning, corrupt garbage, and Labor are, seemingly, totally politically inept. Australia's two choices.

Vote Greens.
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