That's right, Facebook didn't do it willingly so now they are being forced. That's because an imbalanced market where Facebook contributes nothing and reaps all the profits is not sustainable.

Putting your product on a shelf doesn't mean you want all the profits to go to the owner of the shelf. Think of how supermarkets work; both parties get paid. The revenue has to be shared fairly.

No, you are just uninformed. Facebook and similar platforms collect 80% of digital ad revenue from news articles in Australia despite contributing 0% towards the costs of generating the content. This is not just "Murdoch" companies pushing for shared ad revenue. Its also the ABC, SBS, The Guardian, all of whom spend money on journalists to create original content, for Facebook to turn around and take all the money.

The ACCC and multiple successive governments have warned Google and Facebook for years they needed to work out revenue sharing with content creators. This legislation - as flawed as it might be - didn't spring out of thin air. There was plenty of warning, plenty of opportunity, plenty of time for Facebook and Google to work out fair deals. They could have negotiated on their own terms without government intervention. But they did nothing. So now they get legislation.

Google has stepped up and paid the piddling sums for a company with the resources of Google - a few million in shared ad revenue per year - whereas Facebook is still pretending they are indispensable. Well, they're not, and Facebook has no leverage here.

Facebook is doing themselves no favours. They had ample opportunity to hammer out deals with content creators and share ad revenue. Google is stepping up. Facebook is throwing a tantrum. Blocking the Health and Fire Emergency facebook feeds is going to end very badly for Facebook.

oh no those are all good points what do I say... I know! "hur dur trigger the righttards"

Pathetic.

She has a vanity degree. A Bachelor of Arts means its focus is the humanities rather than technical. Its purely for posturing and saying "I have a degree". Diploma Mills (aka pay-for-prestige clubs) churn them out by the millions.

The better question is why a person with a Degree in International Relations and Economics was working a dead-end low-pay no-skill bartender job, immediately prior to winning the ultimate vanity prize of a no-contest electoral position. Really casts some doubt on the value of that degree, eh?

As for her "competence" thats a matter of debate, but only as to the degree of her incompetence. Economists arent lining up to hear her thoughts on economics. Her only fans are partisans on Twitter, a demographic that would be an insult to any honestly competent person.

Or the case two years ago where a racing driverâ(TM)s father said a slur on radio 20 years previously so the son lost all sponsorship deals. The son wasnâ(TM)t even alive when the father misspoke. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/0... Even worse the word isnâ(TM)t even a slur in the fatherâ(TM)s native tongue, so he didnâ(TM)t realize he was punishing his unborn son. Cancel culture at its best.

I don't care what a raving lunatic says. Their content is worthless. Anybody who quotes them is a partisan hack or a fellow lunatic.

... Seth Abramson

If youâ(TM)re aiming for zero credibility, quoting Seth Abramson is a great way to get there fast.

The desired effect should be to replace flat tyres on immobile cars regardless of the paint colour.

Except in this case itâ(TM)s giving a free tyre to every red car regardless of whether the red car has a flat tyre or not, and ignoring the blue cars with flat tyres.

Ars Technica is pure garbage and has been for a long time.

Aaron was first and foremost an advocate for free information. He would be rolling in his grave if he could see how his creations have been subverted by closed-minded fascists. Reddit even removed him as co-founder from their About page, just like Stalin once airbrushed Trotsky out of existence. Absolutely disgusting and disgraceful behaviour from a once decent website.

Sadly the number of people who care about free software and free information is diminishing rapidly. Either bullied to death as was the case with poor Aaron or simply deplatformed as is happening with other tech luminaries. Where is the future of free software, or any software for that matter, when all thats left are walled gardens and corporations?

The Soviets were also anti-fascists. The original anti-fascist organisation was literally started by pro-communist groups within Germany. If you think the Allies were in any way, shape or form ideologically aligned with communism and the Soviets, you are severely misinformed.

GNU was started in part because RMS had a bad experience with a printer driver. That incident has indirectly resulted in Linux and its derivatives now dominating the mobile and server markets. Maybe the printer industry is intentionally creating terrible software to spur the next great innovation.

Sweden is to the left of the USA and chose to have no lockdown. Sweden was even derided by President Trump who at the time was parroting the common wisdom that a lockdown made more sense. Sweden ignored the common sense. They are now doing a lot better than countries that did engage in a protracted lockdown.

What does this prove? It proves that you shouldnt cherry-pick your examples to prove any political point. Different countries have different ways of dealing with the pandemic and what works for one country might not work for another country. But regardless of any of that you cant turn this into a left vs right issue. Stop politicising a pandemic you massive flog.