Anger mounts as Facebook's Australia news ban sweeps up charities, government pages

[snoop1130]

Anger mounts as Facebook's Australia news ban sweeps up charities, government pages

By Swati Pandey, Kirsty Needham

 

FILE PHOTO: The Facebook logo is displayed on a mobile phone in this picture illustration taken December 2, 2019. REUTERS/Johanna Geron/Illustration

 

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Dozens of Australian companies, charities and information providers reacted with anger on Thursday after being shut down by Facebook, imploring the social media giant to restore their pages as calls for users to delete the platform grew.

 

Australians were blocked from accessing news in their Facebook feeds after an escalation of the proposed media bargaining code which would require the company and Google to reach commercial deals with news outlets whose links drive traffic to their platforms.

 

But several charities and pages of official health, meteorology and emergency services were also blocked, along with smaller, niche content providers.

 

Foodbank Australia, one of the many charities caught in the crossfire, said Facebook’s response was “unacceptable”.

 

“Hours matter when you have nothing to eat. SORT THIS OUT!” CEO Brianna Casey tweeted.

 

Save the Children CEO Paul Ronalds said the charity had come to rely on the platform to communicate with supporters and members.

 

“We also use Facebook as an important fundraising tool to reach generous supporters who want to support the world’s most vulnerable children,” he said. “Every minute that our page is down is another minute our message isn’t getting out about the needs of children.”

 

Facebook had restored the government services pages by afternoon, but there were still small businesses and community groups who were left venting, with #facebooknewsban and #DeleteFacebook trending on microblogging site Twitter.

 

Rachel Chappell who founded a Sydney-based community group ‘North Shore Mums’ nine years ago woke up to see her Facebook page with its 35,000 followers disappear.

 

“We’re a mum’s website. We are small and niche. This is not fair,” said Chappell, who built up a small business for mothers, writing about family-friendly cafes and pets for the local community, and attracting advertising.

 

“I think they are just bullies. They are shooting themselves in the foot. I spend my A$20,000 marketing budget to promote our content with Facebook,” said Chappell, adding the move had “completely shaken” her.

 

Facebook’s reach in Australia is powerful. It has more than 11 million users in a population of 25 million and takes in about 24% of the country’s advertising spend, according to the competition regulator.

 

A Facebook representative in Australia did not reply to a request for comment. A later Facebook statement said the ban should not affect government pages but “as the law does not provide clear guidance on the definition of news content, we have taken a broad definition”.

 

“CUTE CATS AND CONSPIRACIES”

 

Several organisations posted social media messages directing followers to their websites or other platforms including Twitter and Facebook-owned Instagram.

 

Journalist Jelisa Apps said many rural areas and country towns relied on their local paper’s Facebook pages as physical copies were stripped back over the years. Other social media platforms were not as widely used, she said.

 

“I’ve just checked my hometown’s newspaper page. It’s gone. This is a real shame. An undervalued audience having their news further limited,” Apps said on Twitter.

 

Peter Lewis, director of the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology said Facebook’s decision would make it a weaker social network.

 

Facebook “is destroying its social licence to operate,” Lewis said.

 

“Without fact-based news to anchor it, Facebook will become little more than a cute cats and conspiracy theories (page),” he added.

 

“If Facebook determines to treat Australians with such contempt, Australians should respond by ending its use of Facebook and using alternate ways to connect online.”

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-02-18

 

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[Dagfinnur Traustason]

Better they talk some sense into their deluded government that tries to change the rules and take away the freedom of Internet.

[Stocky]

53 minutes ago, Dagfinnur Traustason said:

Better they talk some sense into their deluded government that tries to change the rules and take away the freedom of Internet.

Rubbish, delete Facebook and find a platform that doesn't bully. Zuckerberg's a moron if he thinks this will do anything but harm Facebook. Google has been smart enough to see the writing on the wall.

[lungbing]

Australia could make a start by taxing Facebook's real income.

[Salerno]

5 minutes ago, lungbing said:

Australia could make a start by taxing Facebook's real income.

 

Which is what they should be doing, not this ballocks money grab for organisations that failed to update their business model for the times.

[welovesundaysatspace]

1 hour ago, snoop1130 said:

Australians should respond by ending its use of Facebook and using alternate ways to connect online.

Weren’t they just whining how much they need Facebook? 
 

It’s Australia’s right to make laws as they wish. And I think that Facebook & Co. need to be regulated and taxed more. 
 

At the same time, it’s also Facebook’s right to make changes to their products and operations as they wish. The Australian government hopefully considered that when it made the new law. 

[Scott]

A post with disguised profanity has been removed.

 

[Bluespunk]

facebook even purged its own corporate page with this pr disaster of a move. 
 

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/18/even-for-a-company-that-specialises-in-pr-disasters-facebook-has-excelled-with-its-australian-blackout?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

 

“Facebook already seemed to be trying to restore the pages it had purged in error – including rather comically its own corporate page.”

[Katipo]

The Aussie government are beholden to Murdoch and Co. Facebook are holding Australian charities and emergency services ransom by including them in their purge. One is as bad as the other.

[John Drake]

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Facebook’s decision would make it a weaker social network.

 

Cancel them.

[John Drake]

15 hours ago, welovesundaysatspace said:

At the same time, it’s also Facebook’s right to make changes to their products and operations as they wish.

 

Why? They are using a medium that was developed and paid for by governments through their people's taxes. Just like a highway. Do you get to change the products and operations on a highway as you personally wish?

[Scott Tracy]

I don't really care.  There are other news services in Australia. Why use a social media site for getting your news. Use a news service. Some news papers charge punters for online content, Facebook have said no, we don't want to pay, therefore we will pull all news service links and posts. If Facebook has to pay for services they do not want, the punters using Facebook will be required to cough up.

 

Australians who want free news... tough poo. Not from Facebook, mateys.

[ardsong]

Nothing in the world is "free", is a common saying; well except maybe the sunshine, wind and rain.

 

So while the Aussie government, small news outlets, charities etc have for many years benefited from the "free" distribution channels offered by Facebook, now suddenly they realize that they all have failed in making a proper guaranteed method of distribution for their own contributions to the internet. Their complaints on FB stopping a "free" service is unfair, as it is only of their own making.

[StevieAus]

3 hours ago, Katipo said:

The Aussie government are beholden to Murdoch and Co. Facebook are holding Australian charities and emergency services ransom by including them in their purge. One is as bad as the other.

How are the Australian government beholden to Murdoch and Co ?

It has far more reach than that organization, plus other countries have said they are considering similar legislation.

You obviously think Facebook should get news content for free, I pay for my online Australian Newspaper.

[RocketDog]

The real takeaway from this is the woeful situation that global corporations have the power and bankroll to force entire countries to the negotiation table; truly a fearsome harbinger. 

 

Extra credit question: compare & contrast. 

"would a country and its citizens be better served by a corporative or a governmental entity ?" 

[welovesundaysatspace]

1 hour ago, John Drake said:

Do you get to change the products and operations on a highway as you personally wish?

Yes, I can change the products I am transporting on a highway, and I can change my transport operations. 
 

 

 

Edited February 19, 2021 by welovesundaysatspace

[John Drake]

47 minutes ago, welovesundaysatspace said:

Yes, I can change the products I am transporting on a highway, and I can change my transport operations. 
 

 

 

 

Not without going through regulations you can't. Try transporting explosives, dangerous chemicals, and radioactive products and find out.

[Katipo]

1 hour ago, StevieAus said:

How are the Australian government beholden to Murdoch and Co ?

It has far more reach than that organization, plus other countries have said they are considering similar legislation.

You obviously think Facebook should get news content for free, I pay for my online Australian Newspaper.

 

News shared in Facebook links directly to the providers website. There it can either be free (ad supported), or behind a limited/complete paywall. Whether you get there directly, or via Facebook, makes no difference. In fact one can argue that Facebook leads to more traffic to a news site, not less.

[welovesundaysatspace]

8 minutes ago, John Drake said:

 

Not without going through regulations you can't. Try transporting explosives, dangerous chemicals, and radioactive products and find out.

And so does Facebook and every other company have to comply to regulations and laws. Try, for example, providing a gambling app where gambling is illegal and find out. 

[thaibeachlovers]

On 2/19/2021 at 7:07 PM, ardsong said:

Nothing in the world is "free", is a common saying; well except maybe the sunshine, wind and rain.

 

So while the Aussie government, small news outlets, charities etc have for many years benefited from the "free" distribution channels offered by Facebook, now suddenly they realize that they all have failed in making a proper guaranteed method of distribution for their own contributions to the internet. Their complaints on FB stopping a "free" service is unfair, as it is only of their own making.

Not even rain some places. I've read that in some places people are not allowed to capture rainwater to use as water rights have been sold off to big corporations. Al Jazira has been running amazing documentaries about "water wars".

 

Re the OP, I've believed all along that over dependence on internet is going to lead to tears, and this only goes to show how much people depended on something that could be eliminated in the push of a computer key.

I'm pretty sure that if we ever go to war again, first thing to go down will be all internet functions- IMO everything we depend on will stop.

[donnacha]

15 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I'm pretty sure that if we ever go to war again, first thing to go down will be all internet functions- IMO everything we depend on will stop.

The entire point of the protocol was to route around network outages and remain usable in the event of a nuclear war.

Now, as satellite Internet goes mainstream, the Internet will be more resilient than ever.

[donnacha]

On 2/18/2021 at 12:55 PM, Stocky said:

Rubbish, delete Facebook and find a platform that doesn't bully.

Whatever we think of Facebook (and they are, indeed, an execrable lot), in this case they are not forcing anyone to do anything.

They were quite happy to allow users to link out to other websites until the Australian government, at the behest of the old media companies (Murdoch etc), decided that this activity (linking to other websites) would now have to cost money.

Facebook complied by preventing the activity.

That this has had the entirely predictable affect of decimating traffic to Australian websites is really on the old media companies themselves.

 

[simon43]

I find it laughable that some companies and organisations seem to have based their business model on the existence of a single, privately-owned website (FB).

 

Truly an "Eggs-in-one-basket" sort of moment.  More fool them......

[simple1]

24 minutes ago, simon43 said:

I find it laughable that some companies and organisations seem to have based their business model on the existence of a single, privately-owned website (FB).

 

Truly an "Eggs-in-one-basket" sort of moment.  More fool them......

 

I assume those organisations / companies who only utilise Facebook have limited budgets for web based activity. In Australia Facebook has apologised for the inconvenience where charity / commercial pages have been taken down and aim to get them back up in the coming weeks - a major pain in the neck for some.

 

Oz government invests about A$20 million p.a. with Facebook pages and for the moment has taken a whole of government decision to cease business with Facebook, a very minor bump in the road for immediate Facebook revenues. For the past two years Facebook has been planning to role out a new product, Facebook News, for which news organisation will receive payment for content; taking this into account, to me, it is ludicrous for Facebook to have taken such an aggressive stance.

[Scott]

A post with a link to Google has been removed.   Please post links to the actual source, not the Google page where it is located.  

 

[Rimmer]

Off topic posts and replies have been removed topic is about:

 

Anger mounts as Facebook's Australia news ban sweeps up charities, government pages