Tak, mam konto na Facebooku, tak, mieszkam w Australii. Tak, zalogowałem się dziś tam i po północy powitał mnie taki komunikat:
The way you share news is changing.
But the services you come to Facebook
for— connecting with your friends,
family, community and businesses —is
still here.
https://australia.fb.com/news-law/
Why you can no longer share or see news
on Facebook in Australia.
14 million Australians connect on Facebook everyday and we are proud of the role we have in
building Australian communities and growing their businesses.
Unfortunately, in response to Australia's proposed News Media Bargaining Code legislation,
Facebook will have to restrict publishers and people in Australia from sharing or viewing
Australian and international news content on Facebook.
People outside of Australia also cannot view or share Australian news content or content from
Australian news Pages on Facebook.
This is not the outcome we wanted and it's a step we take reluctantly. The proposed law
fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who
use it to share news content.
This discussion has focused on U.S. technology companies and how they benefit from news
content on their services. We understand many will ask why the platforms may respond
differently. The answer is because our platforms have fundamentally different relationships
with news. Google Search is inextricably intertwined with news and publishers do not
voluntarily provide their content. On the other hand, publishers willingly choose to post news
on Facebook, as it allows them to sell more subscriptions, grow their audiences and increase
advertising revenue.
Last year Facebook generated approximately 5.1 billion free referrals to Australian publishers
worth an estimated AU$407 million. Despite some of these discussions, Facebook does not
steal, take or copy news content.
Over the past few years we’ve built dedicated, free tools to support news organisations
around the world in innovating their content for online audiences. We've also made multi-
million dollar investments in Australian journalism and news organisations. We were prepared
to increase our investments in the local industry, including the rollout of our dedicated news
product, Facebook News, to support Australian publishers, however we were only prepared to
do this with the right rules in place.
The proposed law ignores these investments and the real value we provide to news
organisations. The proposed law is written in a way that means we have to treat all publishers
the same: if one publisher is out, it requires that all publishers must also be out, even if they
are happy with the benefits they receive from Facebook.
The changes affecting news content - which constitutes less than 4 percent of content
shared on Facebook - will not otherwise change Facebook's products and services in
Australia. We want to assure the millions of Australians using Facebook to connect with
friends and family, grow their business and join Groups to help support their local
communities, that these services will not change.
We hope that in the future the Australian Government will recognise the value we already
provide and help us to strengthen, rather than limit, our partnerships with publishers.
Read more about our decision at the Facebook newsroom.
Read more about how people can appeal by clicking directly on the notification on their Page
which will bring them to the help Centre & appeal form.
Read more about the details of our engagement with the Australian Government and the
news industry on this legislation.
Your Questions Answered
Q: What’s happening?
A: In response to Australia's proposed new Media Bargaining law in Australia, Facebook will restrict
publishers and people in Australia from sharing or viewing Australian and international news content on
Facebook.
Q: What will users see when they try to post or share news content?
A: For our Australian community this means they cannot view or share Australian or international news
content on Facebook or content from Australian and international news Pages.
For our international community this means they cannot to view or share Australian news content on
Facebook or content from Australian news Pages.
Q: How does Facebook define news?
A: The proposed law does not provide any clear guidance on the definition of a news business or news
content and was intentionally written to be broad and all-encompassing of news entities. Therefore, we
are forced to take a broad definition of news to identify Pages that share news content. This impacts
Pages that share content from certain domains. Australian Pages that share news content are restricted
entirely on Facebook. For global Pages, we’ve restricted Australians from posting or sharing content
from these Pages. If a Page is experiencing issues, we encourage them to make use of the appeal process
and we will review the action taken.
Q: What will happen when users try to share news content? How are you going to monitor this?
A: Australian users are restricted from being able to post links to news domains. Global users will be
restricted from being able to post links to Australian news domains.
Q: Does this mean Australian users won’t be able to access the news when in other countries?
A: Australian users will not be able to access news content on Facebook, even when traveling. We provide
more information about Facebook's Location settings here.
Q: Does this mean the news publishers pages will be removed from Facebook?
A: No. We are not removing any Pages as part of these changes.
Q: Will it be all news content or just content from Australian news organisations?
A: Australian users are restricted from being able to post, share or see any news content - either from
Australian or global news organisations or entities. Users outside of Australia cannot post, share or see
any news content from Australian news organisations or entities.
Q: Why is Facebook making this decision?
A: 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.
Q: How has Facebook supported Australian news industry?
A: During the past two years we’ve invested many millions of dollars in commercial agreements with
news organisations -- big and small -- for high-quality news video content. We have also made
investments both on and off our platforms to support journalists, academics, and news organisations as
they develop sustainable business models. We have recruited several full-time employees into a number
of new partner-facing roles in news partnerships.
In 2020, we have invested millions of dollars with smaller and rural news partners as part of our reader
revenue accelerator program, global support for newsrooms in response to COVID-19 including our
COVID-19 emergency relief fund in partnership with the Walkley Foundation.
During discussions over this proposed law, we offered to invest millions more. We had also hoped to bring
Facebook News to Australia, a feature on our platform exclusively for news where we pay publishers for
their content. We recently announced the expansion of this product to the UK These deals were made
based on the commercial realities that reflect the value Facebook provides publishers and completed
without the need for overreaching regulation. We will now prioritise our multi-million dollar investments
in news to other countries.
Q: Where can I find news about COVID-19?
A: We recognise it’s important to connect people to authoritative information and we will continue to
promote dedicated information hubs like the COVID-19 Information Centre, that connects Australians
with relevant health information.
We’re committed to the future.
14 million Australians come to Facebook everyday to connect with friends and family, to
pursue their interests and grow their business, and to support each other when going through
a hard time.
Since 2018, we've provided free education to over 20,000 Australian small businesses and in
2020, we've committed over $5m in grants and donations to business owners, groups and
non-profits. We will continue to provide free access to resources, tools and education, and
invest in local programs and partnerships to support an informed, safe and positive
experience for Australians online. Learn more about Facebook’s contribution in Australia.
Nie zrozumieliście?
Nie szkodzi. Całkiem dobre streszczenie tego, co powyżej napisano po angielsku, znajdziecie po polsku w Rzepie.
Tutaj nieco więcej szczegółów na temat co FB zablokował i krótki cytacik dla większej jasności:
Government organisations in Australia including emergency services and weather forecasters have also had their pages removed by Facebook after the social media giant slapped a ban on Australian users and publishers from sharing or viewing news content.
Fire and Rescue NSW, Department of Fire and Emergency Services WA, South Australia Health, Queensland Health have all had their pages wiped this morning.
The Bureau of Meteorology also confirmed to 9news.com.au it's affected.
Najważniejsze, że jest takie miejsce w sieci, które (miejmy nadzieję) „jest i zawsze będzie darmowe” i gdzie także Australijczyk może podzielić się informacją, której nikt mu nie zablokuje, a nawet jakieś informacje przeczytać…
Co najwyżej stanie się „treścią ukrytą”, ale to nie jest jakaś szczególnie mocna dolegliwość.
Szanujmy zatem naszą bezpłatną ostoję wolności!
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