Facebook and its fellow social
media platforms were developed and marketed to online users as a hip way to
connect with other people over the internet. With these connections, people can
share information, and for users that are large companies like game developers
and movie studios, social media enables them to reach plenty of potential
consumers. But there are always elements of this freedom that governments feel
must be curbed. Australia for instance has been pushing legislation that would
compel tech platforms from overseas to pay for news content originating from
their country. Facebook instead warned of taking drastic measures, which were
done on Wednesday.
As IGN tells it, Facebook has opted to block all news feeds, period,
from the pages of all its users in Australia starting February 17. This action
was done in response to the momentum in the Australian legislature of a bill
that, when made into law, would force them and other tech companies to pay Australian
news publishers for their content to put on their platforms. FB users in
Australia cannot view news items both from local and international sources, nor
share them with others.
The Australia and New Zealand
managing director for FB, William Easton, says the proposed law does not take
into consideration the fact that news content there is willingly shared by
publishers, meaning if they choose not to put them of Facebook they should not
appear. Fellow internet giant Google could not avoid the appearance of
Australian news items because it is a search engine, which would explain the
accord it has recently done with News Corp. owned by Australian Rupert Murdoch,
wherein they will pay the latter for news originating from Down Under.
Originally they had been in step with Facebook back in January for shutting
down its Australian services.
When Facebook switched off news
feeds for Australian users however, its blanket implementation also led to the blackout
of non-news organizations in the country, such as FB pages of emergency
services like the Fire & Rescue New South Wales. While some of these pages
have since been restored, many more remain affected by Facebook’s aggressive stance
against the pending legislation. In return, the national treasurer Josh
Frydenberg on Thursday, February 18 declared the social network’s action
unnecessary and harmful to its reputation in Australia, a view shared with the Communications
Minister, Paul Fletcher, and the Prime Minister himself, Scott Morrison.
Image courtesy of Financial Times
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