Australia's High Court rules media are liable for Facebook comments

Well, that will surely keep the big media free of critics!

Not having a comment page has often been a response to critical readers. And that came at a cost too. Broadcast, one to many types and their culture is often authoritarian in that "the consumers" are often seen as trouble anyway. It is a lot harder to publish propaganda when people can push back.

Sure, there are foul people online and misinformation too, but the good stuff gets pushed right out with the trash leaving "authority" sources free to make that AD revenue despite not really informing people all that well.

This idea of more liabilities being used to limit critical speech is going to prove very expensive, and I do not mean lawsuits.

The cost will be a much less useful internet where it will be increasingly hard to find and have real conversations.

And that is where the value is.

The rest is either propaganda or entertainment or orthodoxy.