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An Update About Changes to Facebook’s Services in Australia

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

#51

Post by Polylactic_acid »

chrismsimpson wrote: post #33

I am no fan of this right wing government, which is letting Fake News Corp write it’s media policy, but Facebook does not have an inherent right to other people’s content. Rather than redistributing ad dollars away from big tech, this is likely to force people consuming news to go directly to the source. Either that or it will further dumb down our discourse (though Fake News Corp is doing a pretty good job of that a…

Facebook is not taking anyones content. News companies willingly submit their content to facebook and now demand that facebook should pay for the stuff they submitted. So facebook is taking the logical step by stopping them from submitting the content.

I can't walk up to someone and hand them the keys to my car and then demand that they now owe me the value of the car.

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

#52

Post by paxys »

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.

Most of them are specifically excluded from this legislation.

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

#53

Post by vermilingua »

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.

FWIW, the ABC and SBS both depend on government funding, and so are far from independent; before even factoring in the Murdoch-Liberal Party relationship.

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

#54

Post by im3w1l »

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…

Controversy is a double edged sword. It pulls people in, but also drives people away. It will be interesting to watch what happens for sure.

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

#55

Post by gizmonty »

anon84598 wrote: post #47
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

News Corp is losing money across almost all of its Australian properties. The government keeps finding ways to prop them up under the guise of subsidies for local sports coverage because News Corp provides them with such favourable coverage. It’s blatant corruption.

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

#56

Post by paxys »

valleyjo wrote: post #10

I don’t like FB as a company. However I have to admit, they are correct that news organizations benefit the most from this relationship. Why doesn’t google do the same thing? Don’t index news sites. Googles response seemed less effective than FB’s.

Google will likely do the same, as they did in some European countries.

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

#57

Post by Barrin92 »

joshuamorton wrote: post #25
Barrin92 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which would indirectly prove the point of the legislation right? That Facebook has immense market power in the social media / ad space with no competitor in sight, which would mean expanding bargaining power for news orgs is legitimate. Because switching to a competitor would actually be the answer to your question in a functioning market.

No, because the argument being made is that facebook is paying the news orgs less than they're owed. But the reality is that facebook is providing a free service to the news sites. You normally have to pay someone for advertising. Facebook (and Google) give it away for free.

This seems to miss the point because normally platforms also have to pay for content. Facebook is a platform that hosts user/business produced content. No content, no reason to go to facebook. Likewise, Facebook brings attention to content owners. All of this is 'free' nominally.

That's not the question, the question is who has more market power and squeezes who.

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

#58

Post by vermilingua »

Polylactic_acid wrote: post #44
dicomdan wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It doesn’t control either government, but they have the kind of symbiotic relationship that makes favours indistinguishable from control.
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