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This law is disgusting. It won't just hit Google and Facebook, but anybody who runs a social platform. Reddit, Hacker News, Twitter even Mastodon are all in th
by throwaways885 6y ago
This law is disgusting.
It won't just hit Google and Facebook, but anybody who runs a social platform. Reddit, Hacker News, Twitter even Mastodon are all in the firing line. The Australian government has unilateral control over which sites are required to funnel money Murdoch trash instead of real (maybe even independent) journalism.
My prediction is people will move to social platforms that do let you share these links, and one by one they'll find themselves regulated out of existence when they get large enough to catch the attention of the government. Even worse - think about the ways this could be abused e.g. to shut down small outlets who committed the crime of linking to mainstream sources.
I believe this is far more despicable than anything Big Tech is doing, and global adoption would be the end of a free and open web.
You thought software patents constricted the flow of information? This is 10x worse.
Edit: Please, Aussies, call your MP and tell them your thoughts. Put aside any negative feelings about Big Tech for now, and think about the future of the web. This will eventually affect all of us who operate comment sections, blogs, forums and Mastodon instances.
- username90 6y agoThis law only applies to whoever the Australian government thinks it should apply to, that is the wording there are no explicit rules. Currently that is only Facebook and Google.
- throwaways885 6y agoYup - this is the crux of my point. It's hitting the big guys today and could easily hit anyone tomorrow.
- bouncycastle 6y agoCurrently. However, after such laws are passed, you have to ask, who's next?
- hpoe 6y agoWow so it's okay to go after people that are politically unpopular right now. And when they decide people with certain ideas are dangerous or people of a certain ethnicity are dangerous?
- cwhiz 6y agoFacebook and Google are monopolists and deserve special attention.
- WangComputers 6y agoYou're right about most of the facts however * I LIKE giving the Aussie government unilateral control over this issue vs the status quo of giving Big Tech unilateral control over it. * I LIKE the fact this is unfair, Big Tech has been treating people unfairly for quite some time so I'd like to see them be treated as unfairly as possible. The more damage the Aussie government does to Big Tech the better, the more unfair, the more sadistic the better. * You say that global adoption would be the end of a free and open web? It's far too late for that and the likes of Google and Facebook have nobody to blame but themselves.
- throwaways885 6y agoTrue, I'm not in favour of global monopolies. That being said, we've seen time and again governments will introduce laws with a fair reason and then totally abuse it down the line (Patriot Act anyone). In my country, the government locks people up for making offensive Tweets based on mostly unrelated legislation from decades ago. The free and open web is still here, just most people don't choose to use it. Whatever you think of Big Tech, you can go somewhere else and build a website. DuckDuckGo proves it's possible to crack these companies with enough of a value prop.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]