Facebook has turned off the news taps in Australia..It announced it has blocked Australians from viewing and sharing all news on its platform because of proposed laws to make companies like Facebook and Google pay an effective tax to media companies when users share their content. .It is the same bailout model that big Canadian mainstream media companies are demanding from Ottawa..Under the new Facebook policy, Australian web surfers can no longer share content from domestic or international news sources. In other parts of the world, users can’t share news from Australian sources..“The proposed law fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content,” CBC reported Facebook regional managing director William Easton said..The move comes just three days before the country is to launch a massive COVID-19 vaccination progra.“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.”.Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said the government would not back down. Facebook’s move came a day after the government said negotiations were “promising.”.“This announcement from Facebook, if they were to maintain this position, of course, would call into question the credibility of the platform in terms of the news on it,” Fletcher told Australian Broadcasting Corporation..“Effectively, Facebook is saying to Australians information that you see on our platforms does not come from organizations that have editorial policies or fact-checking processes or journalists who are paid to do the work they do.”.Google has threatened to remove its search engine from Australia, but they have signed one deal with an Australian media corporation..Most mainstream media newspapers across Canada went to press earlier with nothing on their front pages – part of a campaign asking the federal government to start taxing Google and Facebook and pass the revenue on to them. Postmedia newspapers and the Toronto Star all went without pictures or headlines on their front page..The Western Standard did not participate in the demand for more government money. In place of low-value Google Ads, the Western Standard is moving to sell ad placements directly to businesses and non-profits..Canadian mainstream media outlets have been the recipients of $600 million in federal Liberal handouts since 2018..The Western Standard refuses to accept the federal media bailout..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com.Twitter.com/nobby7694
