Do you post and read news on Facebook and Instagram? Get ready for a 'troubling' change to your feeds
www.abc.net.au
A battle is brewing between the government and Meta after the tech giant announced it would no longer pay Australian news publishers for content that appears on its platform. This is what it could mean for your Facebook and Instagram feeds.
  • Pendulum
    2•8 months ago

    This. Freebooting is a huge issue and Meta made it a big thing and profits from it.

    A video or image goes viral. Creator has it on a platform where they can monetise or benefit from the views. Some chucklefugg at a content network like ladbible takes it, strips watermarks and logos, posts it on their own Facebook page. Facebook makes money off the adverts on that page.

    Original creator is deprived of clicks, and likely revenue, dutifully completes a DMCA on their stolen content. Maybe a day or two later Meta takes it down. They don’t care, they still made money. Ladbible got a few thousand more subscribers to make impressions on their promoted posts, which nets then more money. The virality of the content has passed, the original creator doesn’t even get 1% of the same clicks and even less credit for their work.

    Now multiply the number of content networks by about 500. Some of whom are fully automated with no human intervention.

    This is not okay, and Meta should be held to task for creating a financial incentive for people to do this.

    • ZagorathOP
      6•8 months ago

      Sorry but what you’re describing is 100% not what this is about. There’s a case to be made for some sort of action being made by Facebook to stop freebooting (RIP HI), but it’s completely irrelevant to what’s going on here.

      This is about links directly to news articles and the claim that Facebook and Google should have to pay for the right to link to a news organisation. News orgs couch this in language like saying Facebook “uses” their content, but this is a deliberate mischaracterisation.

      Here’s a brilliant article about what it is and why it’s so dumb.

      • Pendulum
        1•8 months ago

        Freebooting of news article is distinctly what this is about. Content creators losing clicks, impressions, and ad revenue due to Metas methodology.

        People can have a whinge “it’s news corp so fugg them” but just because something hurts something you don’t like doesn’t make it okay.

        • ZagorathOPEnglish
          5•8 months ago

          No, it’s not. Did you read this article? Did you read earlier articles around the time that the law this article is referencing was first being discussed & came into effect? Did you read Mike Masnick’s article linked in my earlier comment?

          This is about Australia’s link tax, the News Media Bargaining Code. It’s got everything to do with requiring Facebook and Google to pay companies for sending them traffic, and nothing whatsoever to do with freebooting.

          edit: for what it’s worth, this isn’t just News Corp. It was most heavily pushed in its earliest stages by News Corp and other right-wing media, but the Guardian, ABC, and SBS also supported this. That doesn’t make it right. It just serves to further prove how traditional media fundamentally misunderstands how technology works.

            • AJ Sadauskas
              -1•8 months ago

              @pendulum_ @Zagorath Clearly you didn’t read the article.

              Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp wanted a law that says Facebook and Google have to pay News Corp for the privilege of allowing links to News Corp websites.

              So Google has to pay News Corp for the links to News Corp in Google search results.

              So Facebook has to pay News Corp for the links to News Corp sites that appear on Facebook.

              The previous Australian federal government, under the previous Prime Minister Scott Morrison, gave him that law in 2021.

              Google and Facebook struck deals to pay News Corp and other Australian media companies.

              Facebook says it won’t renew those agreements.

              Yes, it is a stupid law. News Corp and other media companies profit from the traffic they get from Google and Facebook.

              Look, here’s the relevant part of the article right here:

              "The Australian government wanted local publishers to benefit when links to their news content appeared on sites like Facebook and Google.

              "It argued that there was significant advertising revenue being generated from this “premium content” and media organisations were missing out on their cut.

              "So in 2021, the Morrison government introduced the News Media Bargaining Code, which aimed to address “bargaining power imbalances” by requiring tech giants to pay for displaying news on their platforms.

              "Under the code, the government can “designate” digital platforms like Facebook and Google and force them into mediation to set terms for a revenue-sharing deal.

              …

              "Instead, Meta and Google struck a flurry of independent deals with news companies, all of which are due to expire in the next few months.

              "The deals, with organisations including the ABC, Nine and News Corp, have brought around $200 million to the sector, according to the government.

              “Now Meta says it’s not renewing the agreements because news isn’t a priority for Facebook users and it wants to invest its money elsewhere.”

            • @[email protected]
              3•8 months ago

              You’re conflating two distinct issues, that involve three separate groups: traditional media, social media, click farm thieves such as ladbible.

              The Australian legislation relates to the first two and their commercial arrangements.