WENDELL HUSSEY | Cadet | CONTACT
As the nation reacts to the bombshell decision by Facebook to ban news from its platform for Australian users, the Prime Minister has revealed it’s actually come at quite a convenient time.
With the country trying to recalibrate and figure out what the decision means for the sharing of information and news, Scotty from Marketing
has admitted that it’s turned into a better day than he had planned.
This comes after his government’s botched handling of the media code saw the rape scandal nudged out of the limelight, as countless pages from the ABC to the Newcastle Jets to the BOM have been banned from posting content.
“Yeah we need to talk about Facebook trying to bully our media, who I hold in close regard,” said the Prime Minister after taking a day off from his commitments yesterday.
“It’s appalling behavior, and not on at all,” said the man about Facebook’s commercial decision, not his party’s handling of a young women’s sexual assault and the subsequent victim-blaming after she publicly aired her grievances.
The huge announcement by Facebook which has dominated the news cycle today, reportedly caused Treasurer Josh Frydneberg to jump on the phone to Mark Zuckerberg today to try and sort something out.
It’s not yet known if the government has made any leeway on their code which saw big-name players like Channel 7 and 9 get paid by Google and independent media left on the sidelines to get burnt by the Facebook shut down.
It’s believed though, that the leaders who botched the handling of negotiations with our biggest trade partner, are hoping that this latest bungle simply gets solved by Facebook turning the taps on again in the next little while.
More to come.
