Australia: Google/FB versus Government

[CCarter]

So Facebook just banned Australians from sharing anything (or just news items) on their platform, even random small blogs. @EyesExist posted a couple of posts about this, but things are going down in less than 10 days.

"Google began the day by unveiling a three-year global agreement with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp to pay for the publisher’s news content, one of several such deals it has announced recently where it appears to be effectively capitulating to publishers’ demands. Hours later, Facebook took the opposite tack and said it would restrict people and publishers from sharing or viewing news links in Australia, in a move that was effective immediately.

[..]

Facebook struck a distinctly different tone. “The proposed law fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content,” William Easton, managing director of Facebook Australia and New Zealand, said of the draft Australian legislation."

Sauce:Facebook Blocks News in Australia, Diverging With Google on Proposed Law​

So there is a new law about to go into effect in a week or so. Really it's old media/dinosaurs AKA the old guard, is trying to take on new media. We've seen this play out in industry after industry for ages. When the new kids on the block go around the old system, the dinosaurs start creating laws cause they've got the power at the moment.

The really interesting part of all this at some point Google has threatened to block search from all of Australia... WTF

"If Australia succeeds in passing the law and showing that it works, it could be a precedent for others," said Daniel Gervais, professor of law at Vanderbilt University, "for Canada, New Zealand and perhaps others."

Facebook said the code doesn't take into account the social network's role in driving readers to publishers. In the blog post, Easton says news content is less than 4 percent of what people see in their News Feeds but last year "generated approximately 5.1 billion free referrals to Australian publishers worth an estimated AU$407 million ($315 million)."

Sauce: Google inks deals, while Facebook blocks content in Australia media dustup​

More: Google says to block search engine in Australia if forced to pay for news

Can someone from Down Under fill us in on these details?

If I can only dream, forcing Google to pay me to send ME traffic... OKAY.

 

[bernard]

This is incredibly interesting if you're a conspiracy, politico nerd, like me.

First of all, the legacy media has the lamest, dumbest take on Google and Facebook, saying they are taking away "their" ad revenue.

Or so it seems at least, until you really think about it.

They make the argument that Google and Facebook are taking "their" ad revenue, which doesn't make sense, but because Google is a search engine and Facebook is social media. Neither is a news org, so it's much more likely that everyone is earning more from this.

So why are they making this argument?

It can really be only one of two things:

They indirectly reveal that they are all about the ad revenue, nothing about those lofty journalist ideals.

Which really makes a lot of sense considering the crap, clickbait and borderline fake news, they print on the regular.

I think that's mostly what they mean by saying so. That they were used to getting all the ad rev and they are simply pissed that all their antiquated ad sales model got outcompeted.

However, there is something else going on here.

They're appealing to the powers that be, that they have value for those calling the shots and that currently Google and Facebook are getting more for serving the masters, than the newsmedia gets.

What they mean is this:

"We're on board with the kind of sensible politics that will make the 1% richer".

Even so, they dropped the ball here as well. No one believes the news anymore. They're just another blog. No one cares. Give me a blog which agrees with me. That's enough.

So overall I think newsmedia will lose this war. They will get paid off with some pittances, but overall their business model is dying. They won't exist in 20 years.

 

[CCarter]

Looks like Murdoch is behind all this

This Australian has some harsh words for the deal: "Bugger All"

SAVAGE.

 

[Maudiggity]

This Australian has some harsh words for the deal: "Bugger All"

This Australian is a (twice) former PM Kevin Rudd. He was leader of the Labor party (Australia's liberal political party).

Confusingly, the government at the moment are the Liberals, but they're actually Australia's conservative party.

K Rudd has had a bone to pick with the Murdoch media for as long as they've been around, because Murdoch controls most of the major media outlets in Australia and they are SO conservative (by Aus standards anyway), and anti-Labor, it's fucking ridiculous. The Libs get into power because they have the media conglomerate behind them twisting events, underreporting others, and often just straight up lying to the public in an effort to make the Libs seem good and Labor seem wasteful. In reality it's the other way around.

I say all of that to make the point that K Rudd is not an impartial observer. He's not wrong, but understand that he's biased.

If Labor were in power, I don't think this news media bargaining code would have seen the light of day. They'd probably support a review of how these tech giants are trying to monopolise their respective areas of the internet, but they wouldn't create laws that entrench the Murdoch media in Australia for the foreseeable future. That's in the Libs' best interest though - 100%. That's largely why they're behind this.

They indirectly reveal that they are all about the ad revenue, nothing about those lofty journalist ideals.

Absolutely. That's what the relationship between Murdoch and the Liberal party has always been about (in my view anyway). They make each other rich.

Google and Facebook are at risk of becoming virtual monopolies, which I think is bad for everyone (except them). I don't even disagree with forcing them to pay media outlets in instances where they display their content without the intention of driving traffic to them (e.g., carousels etc.).

Forcing them to pay to send traffic and having to give them advanced notice of updates to their algorithms is just fucking stupid though. That's intended to shore up the Murdoch monopoly, which is already insufferable.

 

[CCarter]

So it's still a classic "old guard versus New Kids on the block" scenario. I'm curious @Maudiggity are you seeing any impact on your SEO or marketing efforts? Are there things you are doing in advanced or in lieu of this within your market?

The reason I'm a bit concerned is Australian are actually the 3rd largest paying audience of the Woo. They lover me Down Under, more than the Germans at least. So when Google says they are going to shutdown search... I have to investigate! It's sort of hard to determine what the COVID impacts are versus Government doing the bidding of Murdoch. But I will say this, this is fuuun.

 

[Maudiggity]

So it's still a classic "old guard versus New Kids on the block" scenario.

That's maybe an oversimplification, but yes, essentially. I think Murdoch is just testing the waters to see if the Googles and Facebooks can actually be reigned in and forced to share their profits.

I'm curious @Maudiggity are you seeing any impact on your SEO or marketing efforts?

I target a US audience primarily, so not really in terms of search for my main website. I am planning to launch a new site targeting an Aus audience, but I'm trying to learn from my mistakes and not rely so heavily on SEO. So, I'm still forging ahead with that and will aim to build a more diverse audience from the get go.

As for Facebook, none of my content is considered news apparently, so I haven't had any posts removed as far as I have found.

The reason I'm a bit concerned is Australian are actually the 3rd largest paying audience of the Woo. They lover me Down Under, more than the Germans at least.

But do your signups come from search or facebook? And are most Aus users targetting local or global audiences. If, in worst-case scenario, both platforms were to just nope the fuck out of Australia, would that really hit that hard?

So when Google says they are going to shutdown search...

I hope it doesn't come to that. I hope this is just a staring contest to see who blinks first.

 

[CCarter]

I swear Australia is losing it, now they want 100 points of identification to create and interact on social media:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1420003443024924673

 

[MrMedia]

They locked down the whole place for 20 infections. The model has been proven.