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Google has been busy making major deals with news organisations. Facebook has chosen the opposite track. The problem Facebook has is government in Australia is

Google has been busy making major deals with news organisations. Facebook has chosen the opposite track. The problem Facebook has is government in Australia is wildly popular because of the pandemic. They can do what they want right now it won't lose them any votes. Ministers are already telling Facebook to leave the country completely!

chris_wot 6y ago
Yup, and given that we have largely managed the pandemic extremely well as a society with a competent government that has a publicly funded health care system, I think it's unlikely that Facebook preventing us from reading the news via Facebook is much of a concern. We were a large consumer of news before Facebook. We will be a large consumer of news after Facebook.
NamTaf 6y ago
I would not call the federal government “wildly popular”. Most people are (rightly, IMO) laying our pandemic success at the feet of state politicians and realising that the federal level had been ineffective at best.
- Wolfenstein98k 6y ago
  Fellow Aussie here - this is simply incorrect. Australia does have competitive federalism, and so many of the localised decisions have been from the states, but the major decisions for seeding - closing borders, acquiring vaccines, etc, along with fiscal backstopping - are federal. The federal government (under ScoMo) has never polled so well as it has during covid, and for good reason. (NB: I am no blind Coalition supporter, but they have made decisions which are very popular, and no amount of directing attention to the states would absolve them from blame if we had a situation more like Europe or the US.)
  - NicoJuicy 6y ago
    But Australia is an island. It's much easier to be effective against covid. Not really sure why the politicians get the slack. Which measurement was highly effective that could also be done in a country with neighbors. Ps. I'm not pro Facebook. Just curious
    - elyobo 6y ago
      > Which measurement was highly effective that could also be done in a country with neighbors. ... All of them? I'm not sure why so many people seem to think water is required to make a border effective.
    - pasttense01 6y ago
      The United States has land borders with two countries: Canada and Mexico. However these are NOT considered to be major sources of Covid infection in the U.S.--instead it has been China and Europe. The U.S. could have set up controls eliminating people movement by air as easily as Australia did--but it failed to do so.
      - Wolfenstein98k 6y ago
        This is an artefact of bad testing in non-developed countries. You should assume it's ten or twenty times worse than the figures show, AT LEAST, in any countries that aren't fully transparent and rich enough to test widely. Compare 477 to 16,000: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2021/01/sudan-estimate-of-the-day.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2021/01/su...
    - Wolfenstein98k 6y ago
      I agree, we are extremely lucky to be an island with hard borders. Most countries that have been very successful are hard islands. But politics responds much more to outcomes than causes
elyobo 6y ago
Facebook and Google have not taken opposite tracks; Google hasn't made deals to pay for linking, a major problem with the legislation. Google's deals are around news content, but FB lacks comparable products to negotiate deals around, leaving them with only a refusal to pay for linking.

chris_wot 6y ago

Yup, and given that we have largely managed the pandemic extremely well as a society with a competent government that has a publicly funded health care system, I think it's unlikely that Facebook preventing us from reading the news via Facebook is much of a concern. We were a large consumer of news before Facebook. We will be a large consumer of news after Facebook.

NamTaf 6y ago

I would not call the federal government “wildly popular”. Most people are (rightly, IMO) laying our pandemic success at the feet of state politicians and realising that the federal level had been ineffective at best.

Wolfenstein98k 6y ago
Fellow Aussie here - this is simply incorrect. Australia does have competitive federalism, and so many of the localised decisions have been from the states, but the major decisions for seeding - closing borders, acquiring vaccines, etc, along with fiscal backstopping - are federal. The federal government (under ScoMo) has never polled so well as it has during covid, and for good reason. (NB: I am no blind Coalition supporter, but they have made decisions which are very popular, and no amount of directing attention to the states would absolve them from blame if we had a situation more like Europe or the US.)
- NicoJuicy 6y ago
  But Australia is an island. It's much easier to be effective against covid. Not really sure why the politicians get the slack. Which measurement was highly effective that could also be done in a country with neighbors. Ps. I'm not pro Facebook. Just curious
  - elyobo 6y ago
    > Which measurement was highly effective that could also be done in a country with neighbors. ... All of them? I'm not sure why so many people seem to think water is required to make a border effective.
  - pasttense01 6y ago
    The United States has land borders with two countries: Canada and Mexico. However these are NOT considered to be major sources of Covid infection in the U.S.--instead it has been China and Europe. The U.S. could have set up controls eliminating people movement by air as easily as Australia did--but it failed to do so.
    - Wolfenstein98k 6y ago
      This is an artefact of bad testing in non-developed countries. You should assume it's ten or twenty times worse than the figures show, AT LEAST, in any countries that aren't fully transparent and rich enough to test widely. Compare 477 to 16,000: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2021/01/sudan-estimate-of-the-day.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2021/01/su...
  - Wolfenstein98k 6y ago
    I agree, we are extremely lucky to be an island with hard borders. Most countries that have been very successful are hard islands. But politics responds much more to outcomes than causes

elyobo 6y ago

Facebook and Google have not taken opposite tracks; Google hasn't made deals to pay for linking, a major problem with the legislation. Google's deals are around news content, but FB lacks comparable products to negotiate deals around, leaving them with only a refusal to pay for linking.