Australia: the day after, without Facebook

Audio 01:14

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Text by: RFI Follow

4 min

Discussions at the highest level were held between Canberra and Facebook this Friday, February 19 following the blocking by the social network of news content to oppose the bill to pay the media.

This blockage caused a wave of indignation in Australia.  

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The Australian government has spoken to Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has insisted that his country does not intend to bow to "

 threats

 ".

We have discussed the outstanding issues and agreed that our respective teams will address them immediately,

 " Australian Finance Minister Josh Frydenberg said on Twitter.    

As of yesterday, no more information is available on Facebook which, in protest against a bill which aims to force the Gafa to pay the media for the dissemination of their articles, prevents the publication of any journalistic content.

About 40% of Australians use social media for information, and it is even the main source of information for those under 25.

But since yesterday, no more articles appear on Facebook. 

This poses a big problem for those for whom Facebook also offered the possibility of having access to a very varied number of publications, in a country where the media landscape is very largely dominated by News Corp.

Social networks allow you to have another perspective, and to access alternative media, which use Facebook to bring their articles to their audience.

But they were also blocked.

Suddenly people have only one source to get information, and this source is not necessarily objective,

 ”says Siddharta at the microphone of our correspondent in Sydney,

Grégory Plesse

.  

The blackout imposed by Facebook, however, does not affect Steven, who has never used the social network for information.

On the contrary, he thinks that this maneuver could be beneficial, not only to the media, but also to the general public: “ 

It is perhaps the opportunity to educate the public to go directly to the source, on the sites of those who produce the information, which would allow them to continue to deliver quality information to us, and independently of behemoths like Facebook

 ”. 

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To read also

:

Mark Zuckerberg, the boss who challenges Australia

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  • Mark Zuckerberg