Sticking to the subject of national news for this week, and with a story that's put Australia in the global spotlight again, Facebook have blocked all (or certainly most) of our highest-profile print and broadcast news outlets. This is apparently in response to the Morrison Government's new media laws requiring social media companies to pay said outlets a cut of the revenue from articles.
I'm right on the fence here. These networks and publications do require fees and profits to help them pay their staff, and any source that aids both this and/or Australia's economy is usually something I can support. But look comparatively at both the warring factions here: neither Facebook nor the Murdoch press need to increase their wealth. Both are worth literally billions!
Nonetheless, until now Australian news companies (affiliated with anybody) could broadcast their work to a global audience thanks to Facebook. Not anymore. Yet, this blocking of them could motivate more Aussie users to look news websites and sources up for themselves (which, of course, will increase traffic away from Facebook and towards these Australian pages), and the Internet has for its full history just one news and information source. Finally, all news sources can offer mis- or disinformation, which can arguably be more hazardous than no news whatsoever.
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