In August 2020 Facebook threatened to ban publishers and people in Australia from sharing local and international news on Facebook and Instagram if proposals to introduce the Media Bargaining law continued.
On Thursday morning Australians woke up to find that Facebook had made good on its threat, with the social media giant wiping the pages of everything and everyone it deemed a news publisher.
At the time Will Eastman, managing director of Facebook Australia and New Zealand, said that: “The proposed law fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content. It has left us facing a stark choice: attempt to comply with a law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or stop allowing news content on our services in Australia. With a heavy heart, we are choosing the latter.”
Here’s a round-up of some of the commentary and reporting Facebook’s ban on news content. There will be much more to come.
Miranda Ward in the Australian Financial Review
World watches Facebook’s ‘misguided’ ban on news
Josh Taylor in Guardian Australia
Facebook’s Australia news ban: what is the social media giant up to and how will you be affected?
Mike Isaac, Daisuke Wakabayashi, Damien Cave, and Edmund Lee in The New York Times
Facebook Blocks News in Australia, Diverging With Google on Proposed Law
David Swan and Joseph Lam in The Australian
Delete the app: ex-Facebook boss
Laurence Dodds in The Sydney Morning Herald
We are about to get an idea about just how powerful Facebook is
Paul Smith and Natasha Gillezeau in the Australian Financial Review
Australian news is a commodity Facebook can afford to lose
David Swan in The Australian
Only ‘news’ left on Facebook will be fake under Australia ban
Amanda Meade in Guardian Australia
Prime minister Scott Morrison attacks Facebook for ‘arrogant’ move to ‘unfriend Australia’
John Kehoe in the Australian Financial Review
Why Facebook took the nuclear option
Max Mason in the Australian Financial Review
ACT Health to North Shore Mums: the other victims of Facebook’s ban
Zoe Samios in The Sydney Monring Herald
‘Squashed’: Smaller publishers fear fatal consequences from Facebook’s news ban
Melissa Clarke and Jeremy Story Carter for ABC News
Facebook ban potentially ‘dangerous’ for Indigenous vaccine rollout
Damien Cave in The New York Times
Facebook’s New Look in Australia: News and Hospitals Out, Aliens Still In
John Durie in The Australian
Undermining the power of Facebook
Ross Greenwood on Sky News
‘Key’ to Facebook’s move to ban Australian news is the fact it has no competitors
Jane Buncle in The Australian
We must de-claw Facebook and set example to world
Nassim Khadem for ABC News
Facebook news ban could backfire as media publishers draw communities and advertisers away