Facebook blocks Australian users from viewing or sharing news

[bilby]

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-australia-56099523

Also many Australian government FB pages have had their content blocked.

At least one cartoonist seems to have found a loophole - FB hasn't blocked Twitter, so just tweet your news, then post the link to the tweet on FB, and voila...

 

[bilby]

Some are not responding to this with quite the degree of wailing and gnashing of teeth that Zuckerberg might have anticipated...

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Not using Facebook as a source of news? Is Facebook sure they want to remind people this is possible and actually a good idea?

 

[bilby]

Not using Facebook as a source of news? Is Facebook sure they want to remind people this is possible and actually a good idea?

Yeah, I am not sure they've really thought this one through.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Not using Facebook as a source of news? Is Facebook sure they want to remind people this is possible and actually a good idea?

Yeah, I am not sure they've really thought this one through.

Facebook doesn't want to cave in to Australian extortion.

 

[Patooka]

I'm really torn about this. On one side there is Google/Facebook/Youtube etc and their near oligopoly on social media. The other side of this discussion is spearheaded by Rupert Murdoch and Peter Costello.

This is the shittiest Alien vs Predator ever. And that has stiff competition.

 

[bilby]

Not using Facebook as a source of news? Is Facebook sure they want to remind people this is possible and actually a good idea?

Yeah, I am not sure they've really thought this one through.

Facebook doesn't want to cave in to Australian extortion.

It's more that the Australian government has caved in to Murdoch extortion, and Facebook refuses to play along.

Our current PM is a wholly owned subsidiary of News Ltd in partnership with the Hillsong Pentecostal Church.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Facebook doesn't want to cave in to Australian extortion.

It's more that the Australian government has caved in to Murdoch extortion, and Facebook refuses to play along.

Our current PM is a wholly owned subsidiary of News Ltd in partnership with the Hillsong Pentecostal Church.

Huh? I thought the issue was Australia mandating paying for news links.

 

[ronburgundy]

I bet that if all social media banned access and sharing of "news" sites there world would be a better place.

That's not an endorsement of such an action, just an observation about the massive harms done to social and political discourse by the mindless sharing of "news" headlines attached to stories that usually devoid of any relevant facts, and almost never read past the headline anyway.

 

[bilby]

Facebook doesn't want to cave in to Australian extortion.

It's more that the Australian government has caved in to Murdoch extortion, and Facebook refuses to play along.

Our current PM is a wholly owned subsidiary of News Ltd in partnership with the Hillsong Pentecostal Church.

Huh? I thought the issue was Australia mandating paying for news links.

It is. Guess who the main Australian beneficiary of such payments would be? Begins with an "M".

Guess who originated and promoted this idea, and got the government to make it policy?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Huh? I thought the issue was Australia mandating paying for news links.

It is. Guess who the main Australian beneficiary of such payments would be? Begins with an "M".

Guess who originated and promoted this idea, and got the government to make it policy?

Yeah, last time I checked, this wasn't a liberal government. So if they are doing something like this, it has to be about money.

 

[bilby]

Huh? I thought the issue was Australia mandating paying for news links.

It is. Guess who the main Australian beneficiary of such payments would be? Begins with an "M".

Guess who originated and promoted this idea, and got the government to make it policy?

Yeah, last time I checked, this wasn't a liberal government. So if they are doing something like this, it has to be about money.

It's a Liberal government, so very much not a liberal government. But these laws have support across the political spectrum, because the one thing all Australian politicians agree on is that their continued employment is at the whim of Rupert, and getting together to stand up to him is the Prisoner's Dilemma.

This country has a perfect storm of a near monopoly in the media; a voting public who largely believe whatever the media says; and a tiny number of media owners who have zero morals and an insatiable desire for money and power.

Murdoch is the bad guy here, but few can say as much, and none who can have the reach to inform the masses. But don't get me wrong, just because Murdoch is the bad guy, doesn't mean that Scott Morrison isn't also the bad guy, or that Mark Zuckerberg isn't the bad guy too.

This is one of those conflicts where it would be nice if all sides were soundly beaten.