Australians woke to empty news feeds on their Facebook Inc pages on Thursday after the social media giant blocked all media content in a surprise and dramatic escalation of a dispute with the government overpaying for content. The move was swiftly criticised by news producers, politicians and human rights advocates, particularly as it became clear that official health pages, emergency safety warnings and welfare networks had all been scrubbed from the site along with the news.
“Facebook was wrong, Facebook’s actions were unnecessary, they were heavy-handed, and they will damage its reputation here in Australia,” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told a televised news conference.
Frydenberg said Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg gave no warning of the news shutdown when the pair spoke over the weekend about looming laws that will force both Facebook and search engine giant Google to pay local publishers for content.
The two men had a subsequent conversation on Thursday morning which was “constructive”, Frydenberg said, adding they discussed what he called “differing interpretations” about how the new Media Bargaining Code would work. Facebook’s drastic move represents a split from Alphabet Inc-owned Google after they initially joined together to campaign against the laws. Both had threatened to cancel services in Australia, but Google has instead sealed preemptive deals with several outlets in recent days.
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said Facebook had sent the message to Australians that “you will not find content on our platform which comes from an organisation which employs professional journalists, which has editorial policies, which has fact-checking processes”. Health Minister Greg Hunt said Facebook pages of numerous community health projects had been shuttered and “the fact that the kids cancer project could be affected, is, frankly a disgrace”.
In other news – Another woman accuses DJ Fresh of rape
A second woman has come forward and revealed that she too was raped by DJ Fresh! The woman whose handle is @TheKingsTings has tweeted a series of tweets that suggest that the Botswana born DJ raped her when she was in high school. Learn more
Source: IOL
