The U.K. and Canada look ready to copy Australia’s idea to force Google and Facebook to give publishers money. But it’s a warped system that rewards the wrong things and lies about where the real value in news lies.
“Readers want to be contributing to something that is successful. So you have to be careful about crisis messaging, saying, ‘Oh gosh, we’re going to go under if we don’t get support.'”
Is a defamatory comment left on your Facebook page more like graffiti on a wall, a streaker on live TV, or a hand-delivered telegram? Whatever your metaphor, Australian courts now say publishers are legally liable for words they neither wrote nor published.
If the current situation continues, it may leave Facebook operating much more like the Chinese platform WeChat, where news is ruled by platform-specific content houses cranking out huge volumes of low-quality articles.
Caroline Fisher, Kerry McCallum, Kieran McGuinness, and Sora ParkFebruary 19, 2021
Newspaper closures and job losses have hit areas outside Australian cities hard. Removing news from Facebook will further restrict the choices of people with already limited access to news.
Kieran McGuinness, and Sora Park, Caroline Fisher, Kerry McCallum,. "As Facebook pulls news in Australia, rural and elderly Australians will be hardest hit." Nieman Journalism Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, 19 Feb. 2021. Web. 26 May. 2023.
APA
Kieran McGuinness, and Sora Park, C. (2021, Feb. 19). As Facebook pulls news in Australia, rural and elderly Australians will be hardest hit. Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved May 26, 2023, from https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/02/as-facebook-pulls-news-in-australia-rural-and-elderly-australians-will-be-hardest-hit/
Chicago
Kieran McGuinness, and Sora Park, Caroline Fisher, Kerry McCallum,. "As Facebook pulls news in Australia, rural and elderly Australians will be hardest hit." Nieman Journalism Lab. Last modified February 19, 2021. Accessed May 26, 2023. https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/02/as-facebook-pulls-news-in-australia-rural-and-elderly-australians-will-be-hardest-hit/.
Wikipedia
{{cite web
| url = https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/02/as-facebook-pulls-news-in-australia-rural-and-elderly-australians-will-be-hardest-hit/
| title = As Facebook pulls news in Australia, rural and elderly Australians will be hardest hit
| last = Kieran McGuinness, and Sora Park
| first = Caroline Fisher, Kerry McCallum,
| work = [[Nieman Journalism Lab]]
| date = 19 February 2021
| accessdate = 26 May 2023
| ref = {{harvid|Kieran McGuinness, and Sora Park|2021}}
}}
