"Going forward, the government has clarified [Facebook] will retain the ability to decide if news appears on Facebook so that [Facebook] won't automatically be subject to forced negotiation,"
so it looks like Facebook won in the game of chicken between them and the Australian government.
The news has no leverage, they want to shakedown FB for driving traffic to their own sites?
I'm glad FB told them to fuck off.
Meanwhile Google decided to pay Murdoch's extortion fee: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56101859
Google did the wrong thing.
Facebook is negotiating deals with media companies. The Australian government got what they wanted.
I hope FB’s offer is nothing.
Maybe FB will charge the media for the referral traffic that FB directs to them. That’d be where I’d start negotiations.
This isn’t what the Australia government wanted, they just realized that FB not showing news hurts the news more than it hurts FB.
That's a futile hope. It won't be nothing.
> This isn’t what the Australia government wanted
Yes it is.
> they just realized that FB not showing news hurts the news more than it hurts FB
No. Facebook has realized that they just strengthened the Australian government's resolve to introduce the legislation, that they increased support for the media bargaining code within Australia, and that they gained Australia the support of governments all over the world.
Facebook has successfully convinced governments that Facebook is a problem that needs to be solved. It was a massive own goal for Facebook. More governments will introduce similar legislation now.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/government-agrees-to...
Facebook gained one month's notice when a platform is designated under the code and two months more negotiation time when making a deal. That's all.
From my understanding of the situation, there was no game.
FB didn't give a shit about pulling news from Australia because it was a tiny proportion of their content.
The government/politicians were trying to strong arm FB into coughing up with zero leverage. It was insanely stupid.
Here's FB's post for context: https://about.fb.com/news/2021/02/changes-to-sharing-and-vie...
But on Facebook the news publishers voluntarily share their stories.
That’s the biggest difference in my opinion.
The distinction is really just a technicality of whether the ongoing relationship is push or pull.
Since Google stated it was prepared to share revenue from news.google back in June and now that is all that is happening, I'd say someone else blinked.
[0] https://theconversation.com/this-weeks-changes-are-a-win-for...
What an embarrassment.
I expect nothing less of this government.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-media-facebook-...
Which countries are we talking about?
It seems far more likely to me that people in nearby developing countries will get their international news from locals who follow international news for professional reasons, which would be impacted not at all by whether Australian news links can be shown on Facebook.
In most pacific island, yes. In places like East Timor English it's not uncommon at all, news is also often shared via relatives who live abroad. Do you really think china doesn't have multiple news outlets written in English to promote their power abroad, just look at the South China morning Post.
>It seems far more likely to me that people in nearby developing countries will get their international news from locals who follow international news for professional reason
I'm confused why you would think that? A lot of these countries have specific phone plans which exclude Facebook data and they like a large amount of people get their news on social media.
Here's a few articles on the very subject [0][1]
[0]https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-19/pacific-media-warns-f...
[1]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/19/facebooks-aust...
> I'm confused why you would think that?
Simple; it's true everywhere. Most people do not care about international news; they do not ever seek it out.
Most news source I searched are reporting small (but logical) tweaks to the law, to the point that it seems Facebook largely conceded and then put out some face saving PR.
In practice the government has achieved their goal of both FB and Google paying for news content. Both have backed down. The total (industry wide) payments seem likely to reach about $200 million AUD.
Further the government’s legislation is going to pass with cross-party support.
Overall the government probably considers this a resounding success.
What doesn’t seem to be the case is that Facebook can discriminate against content from bargaining code participants (companies that ask for money for content).
It seems likely they’ll now follow Google’s path and strike individual deals ahead of the legislation.
It’s weird. They make this huge media circus for several days, then things change and nobody bothers to explain the new info that changed the situation.