Facebook restricts access to Australian News post and article after Parliament Lower House passes Media Baragining Code

[Jimmyson]

Summary

After threats of Google seeking to prevent search operations in Australia, and largely backing down after signing agreements with Australian Media Business, Facebook has decided to suspend the posting and sharing of News Articles and Information from the Pages of Australian Media and other sources.
ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), Nine and Fairfax, News Corp and others have had their posts removed from the platform.

Other pages such as Australian Bureau of Meteorology (weather provider), Comedy News shows and satirical news pages have also been affected. Questions remain for Emergency Services Providers.

 

Communications between the Government and Facebook are ongoing...

 

Quotes

Quote

The announcement comes in response to proposed new laws in Australia that would force tech companies to negotiate with media companies over how much to pay them for news content.

The move would also prevent people overseas from sharing Australian content on the social media site.

Facebook said the law fundamentally misunderstood the relationship between their platform and publishers who use it to share news content.

It said it faced the stark choice between attempting to comply with a law, or banning news content on its services in Australia — and "with a heavy heart" it was choosing the latter.

 

Quote

The government said it was continuing to talk with Facebook, and founder Mark Zuckerberg has already spoken to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg this morning.

"This morning, I had a constructive discussion with Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook," Mr Frydenberg tweeted.

 

My thoughts

They are a private company, and can choose to play how they like to.

There is a question about media literacy and people's lack of finding alternative sources. Maybe it's just convenient.

The are also questions whether this code was mostly put in due to the current conservative government having an ear-shot of larger, right leaning media companies (i.e.: News Corp), whom own Sky News Australia and a majority of Australia's Tabloid Newspapers.

 

Many of the news providers use post taken from Facebook's platform to whip up spin and hysteria in major news cycles, and people either buy it, or it further disillusions them from the content.

Just look elsewhere.... Why give in to Daddy Murdoch or Facebook? They both don't care about what they host on their platforms.

 

Sources

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-18/facebook-to-restrict-sharing-or-viewing-news-in-australia/13166208

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-18/facebook-credibility-brought-into-question/13166318

[TrigrH]

most of our news is trash anyway, its like inbuilt ad-block  

[AussieDronePilot]

Not too sure if these have been removed for international viewers as well but the following pages have had their posts and images removed, with only page information and logo remaining.

 

https://www.facebook.com/ACTGov/ ACT Government (Australian Capital Territory)

https://www.facebook.com/ACTHealthDirectorate/ ACT Health (Australian Capital Territory)

https://www.facebook.com/frnsw/ Fire and Rescue NSW (New South Wales)

https://www.facebook.com/VRANSW/ NSW Volunteer Rescue Association Inc. (New South Wales)

https://www.facebook.com/QLDHealth/ QLD Health (Queensland)

https://www.facebook.com/sahealth/ SA Health (South Australia)

https://www.facebook.com/SAGovernment/ SA Government (South Australia)

https://www.facebook.com/TasmanianGovernment/ Tasmanian Government (Tasmania)

https://www.facebook.com/dfeswa Department of Fire and Emergency Services WA (Western Australia)

https://www.facebook.com/wagovnews/ WA Government (Western Australia)

 

https://www.facebook.com/bureauofmeteorology/ Bureau of Meteorology (Australia)

[PlayStation 2]

Isn't it funny how the same people who push the "it's a private company" bullshit are the same ones who cheer on censorship of opinions they don't like? And then get pissed when they get affected by that company's dumb ass decisions?

[TetraSky]

They are well within their rights to not host this content if they don't want to.
By simply not hosting or redirecting any Australian media, they don't go against whatever rules or laws the Australian gov made that would prevent "discrimination" against the media that wanted this stuff to go through, as was said in the other thread when Google was saying they would pull out.

 

A "link tax" is ridiculous. It's literally bringing traffic to their site by giving it more "exposure" (I know this word gets a lot of flak.. but it's true in this case).

Even more so when you consider that on Facebook, it's the media companies who are publishing their articles on there. Not random third parties. They want to get paid... For willingly putting their stuff there.

If it was just about third parties having summaries/full extract of the articles, I'd understand. But considering it's literally these media companies who are posting their articles on Facebook... I'm sorry, but you can't have your cake and eat it too. Facebook doesn't need their news posts for them to make money. They can afford to not host them. But they need Facebook to get more people to their site and see their ads/pay a subscription. They should've thought about that when they wrote this.

[AussieDronePilot]

2 hours ago, Jimmyson said:

They are a private company, and can choose to play how they like to.

There is a question about media literacy and people's lack of finding alternative sources. Maybe it's just convenient.

The are also questions whether this code was mostly put in due to the current conservative government having an ear-shot of larger, right leaning media companies (i.e.: News Corp), whom own Sky News Australia and a majority of Australia's Tabloid Newspapers.

 

Many of the news providers use post taken from Facebook's platform to whip up spin and hysteria in major news cycles, and people either buy it, or it further disillusions them from the content.

Just look elsewhere.... Why give in to Daddy Murdoch or Facebook? They both don't care about what they host on their platforms.

Indeed, they can choose what they want to host. I think the legislation is flawed, why should Google, Facebook and Twitter have to pay for linking to articles? Even the media themselves share links to content on their own Facebook pages, and they want to be paid to do that as well, not just other users sharing links? Sure if they were using content that they scrapped to reuse, they should pay.

 

Many news outlets rip content off other people's content posted on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. So do the media pay for content they use (under Reporting the news section in Fair-dealing provisions in the Copyright Act) and fail to attribute to the source? Nope. The legislation is mostly about propping up media companies (mostly Nine Media and News Limited Australia) who failed to move with the times (going away from print to online), but what I do agree with, Facebook doesn't pay its fair share in tax but that is a failure in Government for not having the tax laws keep pace with the changing environment of the big corporations finding loop holes to funnel funds offshore.  

 

Facebook could've handled this better by just blocking/removing media, and not Government and Organisations. Since the Federal (Australian) Government is going to use the Government and Organisations being removed as an argument that "Facebook is unreliable and cannot be trusted, this is why we need this law", when the legislation has nothing to do that at all.

[Jimmyson]

Further pages affected. Examples lifted from another article

 

• 1800RESPECT (Family Violence Support)
• DVConnect (Family Violence Support)
• Australian Council of Trade Unions (Trade Union)
• Gippsland Jersey (Small Rural Business)
• Brisbane City Council (Local Area Council)
• Harvey Norman (Medium Business)
• TransLink (Public Transports for Queensland State)
• RACQ (Roadside Assistance)
• Bowel Cancer Australia (Cancer Awareness Organization)
• The Kids' Cancer Project (Cancer Awareness Organization)
• Women's Rugby League (Sport)
• Queensland Rugby League (Sport)

Source:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-18/bom-health-authorities-betoota-caught-in-facebook-news-ban/13166394

[Jimmyson]

8 minutes ago, gabrielcarvfer said:

They're still visible here.

Time to whip out that VPN. PIA anyone?

[Spotty]

Quote

The social media giant said it had explained for months that "the value exchange between Facebook and publishers runs in favour of the publishers — which is the reverse of what the legislation would require the arbitrator to assume".

 

"Last year Facebook generated approximately 5.1 billion free referrals to Australian publishers worth an estimated AU$407 million."

 

The company said what it gained from news content was "minimal", and made up about 4 per cent of what people saw in their newsfeed.

Facebook generated 5.1 billion referrals to Australian news sites? Y'all are spending way too much time on Facebook.

 

1 hour ago, Jimmyson said:

Further pages affected. Examples lifted from another article

• Harvey Norman (Medium Business)

Ahhhhahahahahahahahaha... Hahahahahaha. 

[AussieDronePilot]

Access has been restored to;

 

ACT Government

ACT Health

Fire and Rescue NSW

QLD Health

SA Health

SA Government

Department of Fire and Emergency Services WA

WA Government

Bureau of Meteorology

 

Others are still have no posts publicly viewable in Australia.

[AussieDronePilot]

Other pages that are not viewable;

 

https://www.facebook.com/RegionalArtsNSWLtd/ Regional Arts NSW

https://www.facebook.com/artsoutwest/ Arts Outwest

https://www.facebook.com/ArtsUpperHunter Arts Upper Hunter

https://www.facebook.com/EasternRiverinaArts/ Eastern Riverina Arts

https://www.facebook.com/RegionalDevelopmentAustraliaCentralWest Regional Development Australia Central West

https://www.facebook.com/RDAOrana Regional Development Australia - Orana

https://www.facebook.com/RegionalDevelopmentAustraliaNorthernInland Regional Development Australia Northern Inland

https://www.facebook.com/RDASouthernInland Regional Development Australia Southern Inland

 

 

The legislation in question "Treasury Laws Amendment (News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code) Bill 2021"

https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;page=0;query=BillId:r6652 Recstruct:billhome

[GT_VIRUS]

About half the sporting organizations I follow were restricted, most of the ones that were had mis-categorized the page.  

 

 

I see many redditor's gloating over this, seeming oblivious to the fact that the same thing will happen to them.

 

[Sulrich]

This has successfully managed to move the rape of a parliamentary staffer in a senior ministers office, and then covered up by government ministers, off the front page.

 

the manipulation of media in Australia is unbelievable.

[Taf the Ghost]

I have no horse in this fight, so I just find this hilarious.

 

I do want to point out that stuff like this won't be going away. There's a lot of parallels to the agricultural industry in this, which is what led to the creation of future's contracts, along with governments having "Ag Policy" and the like. When the middle-man can start to absorb most of the revenue, the core producers will find ways to drastically restricting that ability.

[Brooksie359]

7 hours ago, PlayStation 2 said:

Isn't it funny how the same people who push the "it's a private company" bullshit are the same ones who cheer on censorship of opinions they don't like? And then get pissed when they get affected by that company's dumb ass decisions?

I think censorship is bad and as most of these sites are platforms they shouldn't have the ability to do censorship that isn't for strictly legal reasons unless they want to be treated as a publisher and therefore legally liable for the content posted on their site. Like they shouldn't be able to censor opinions they don't like but obviously should be able to censor things that are illegal or strictly go against their guild lines. As for this case its not even a question of censoring speech. Its simply them choosing to remove content that would get them in legal trouble if they didn't pay for it. It would be the same if someone posted copyrighted content on the site. If someone posted a full copyrighted book on the site you sure would have them removing that from the site. This is basically the same thing as that is what Australia is considering the news at this point. 

[Drama Lama]

Me who doesn't live in Australia and doesn't use Facebook:

[SADS]

Seems like a win win for AUS here.

 

They're just avoiding all that BS fake news that comes from FB. Like someone said, built in ad blocker!

[Serin]

The official Star Trek page, along with George Takei's page got caught in their zuccening.

Never mind that they killed Indigenous health pages, regional fire services pages or coronavirus info and mental health support pages. THEY TOOK AWAY THAT MOST IMPORTANT AMERICAN SCIFI PAGE THAT SURELY LOTS OF AUSTRALIANS NEED 

[Fnige]

1 hour ago, Serin said:

The official Star Trek page, along with George Takei's page got caught in their zuccening.

Never mind that they killed Indigenous health pages, regional fire services pages or coronavirus info and mental health support pages. THEY TOOK AWAY THAT MOST IMPORTANT AMERICAN SCIFI PAGE THAT SURELY LOTS OF AUSTRALIANS NEED 

ok

[tjmarx]

To those using the good ole' "they're a private company, they can do what they want" line, that's bunk.

Telstra and Optus are private companies, should they be able to decide what you're allowed to talk about on the phone? via SMS? What pages you should be able to view through the internet? Of course not. They're a communications platform.

 

Facebook too is, a communications platform. But it's more than that, for some people Facebook IS the internet, they don't know how to access other parts of the internet or they are device locked. Access to independent news sources are essential to democracy. What Facebook are doing is nothing short of a direct attack on Australian democracy.

The block locks out news sources in Australia, Australian news sources internationally and has also locked out GOVERNMENT pages including those of emergency services and state health departments...during a pandemic.

 

Most of Australia seems to agree, accounts are being deleted en masse, #deletefacebook is trending, large brands are pulling their ad dollars and ScoMo has asked the international community for solidarity and has begun receiving it. Even the ex-CEO of Facebook Australia is encouraging Aussies to delete their accounts. 

Facebook don't seem to have noticed the writing on the wall in time like Google did. 

https://nypost.com/2021/02/18/ex-australian-facebook-ceo-urges-users-to-delete-the-app/

 

https://7news.com.au/technology/how-to-delete-your-facebook-account-after-australian-news-ban-c-2195349

 

https://thewest.com.au/technology/facebook/facebook-news-ban-deletefacebook-movement-gains-traction-across-australia-ng-b881800083z

 

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7132568/how-facebook-has-failed-australia-a-message-to-our-readers/

 

https://www.9news.com.au/technology/facebook-news-ban-what-are-the-global-implications-for-technology-giant-digital-expert/38e5622d-8d1c-45c6-9e63-6dbaa7e3352f

[Dabombinable]

Puts articles on FB of their own free will>demands FB pay them.

Google aggregates news sites via links>links take people to news sites with Google ads on them>media cries poor and demands Google pay them additional money.

[CTR640]

Facebook can fuck off and die in creek full of diarrhea.

Mark Suckerberg should be put behind the bars in the zoo because he looks too much like a reptilian.

[onlybuilt4cubanxlinx]

Ironic that FB is down atm.

[StDragon]

Aussies have a problem (much like the rest of the world); they're addicted to FB.

 

Here, let me help you all to kick this nasty toxic habit. https://deletefacebook.com/

[Spotty]

*Shocked pikachu face* Australian News websites have seen a pretty noticeable dip in traffic since Facebook put the news ban in place.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-19/facebook-referral-traffic-down-news-ban-morrison-frydenberg/13171568

Quote

Traffic to Australian news websites tumbled in the hours following Facebook's news ban and audiences overall have not shifted to new platforms, according to data from web analytics company Chartbeat.

Its data, collected from around 255 Australian websites, shows overall traffic to Australian news sites in the wake of the ban fell by about 13 per cent from within Australia and 30 per cent from overseas.

The percentage of Australian traffic from Facebook to news sites dropped from 21 per cent before the ban to less than 2 per cent by midday AEDT yesterday.

The data shows a normal decline in Facebook referrals as Australians went to sleep on Wednesday night.
As they awoke on Thursday morning, referral traffic climbed as normal but by 6:00am AEDT the increase had faltered before it tumbled rapidly after 7:00am as the outage began to have rolling effect.

Facebook referral traffic recorded during the peak evening period last night was roughly equivalent to what might be recorded at 3:00am on a normal day.

For readers to Australian sites coming from outside Australia, the percentage of traffic driven by Facebook dropped even further, from 30 per cent to 4 per cent.