CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Australians could be blocked from sharing news content on Facebook and Instagram, in Zuckerberg’s most recent flex against Australian policymakers.
Facebook has issued the threat in response to a proposed law that would see Facebook and Google forced to pay Australian media organisations for hosting their content.
In a world-first attempt to govern how media companies deal with big tech, The Government says the proposed laws are necessary to level the playing field between publishers and tech giants.
Some say this is because the baby boomers running NewsCorp and Nine Entertainment have been caught with their pants down, after spending the last decade hoping that social media was a fad and that nightly free-to-air TV and print newspapers would stay strong in the rapidly changing media landscape.
In a move reminiscent of the time Murdoch received a $882m tax rebate under Prime Minister Abbott, simply because he asked for it, his newest push to get the Government to make Facebook pay him for sharing his anti-climate-change and pro-Liberal Party propaganda has been met with a Sonny Bill fend by the only media players in the world who are bigger than he is.
Facebook says the government misunderstands the relationship between news and social media, and if Australia requires it to pay for local news content, it will block all news from its Australian users because they honestly couldn’t give a fuck about our pissy little market of 25 million.
However, with this stalemate between news publishers, big tech, and our Federal government that is showing an increasingly worrying inability to hose down fires with big players like China and Facebook – the question remains, what will Australia look like without news websites in their news feed.
Australian health and lifestyle influencers say they are concerned that these new changes will make it harder to peddle ‘facts’ about the dangers of polio vaccinations and flu shots, if they are no longer able to share articles from websites like www.TheRealNewsAboutMedicalInjuries.net.py
“How are we supposed to tell our thousands of impressionable followers to do their own research into the findings of scientists and medical professionals who have spent decades researching preventative treatments to now extinct illnesses” says Kaylentaya Shayley (22), a prominent wife of fringe Gold Coast Titans player, Braydeighn Shayley.
“This is oppression. This is an assault on the Freedom of speeches”
Australians also say they are growing concerned that these new changes in social media will mean that their Aunty Jill can no longer continue down the rabbit hole of global Jewish new world order conspiracies that she discovered while trying to look up who Jeffrey Epstein was, after someone recommended a new Netflix documentary to her at a dinner party.
“Think about Aunty Jill” says Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
“Think about her experience.”
“Think about the Quiet Australians that want validation that climate change isn’t an issue and that Muslim-Australians are an issue”
“How dare Facebook not let our friends at NewsCorp and their friends in the Alt-Right share fake news stories about Death Taxes and teenage African Gangs”
