Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Facebook will restore news to Australian pages in the next few days after the government agreed to change its landmark media bargaining code that would force the social network and Google to pay for displaying news content.
Last week, Facebook blocked all news on its platform in Australia, and inadvertently blocked information and government pages, including health and emergency services.
Firm sets 15 May deadline to agree to new terms but will let notifications continue for short time afterwards
After an abortive attempt to change its privacy policy led to millions of users signing up for competing services, WhatsApp has said it will try for a second time to roll out the update in mid-May.
In an effort to smooth the transition, WhatsApp will for the first time allow limited access to its services for users who do not agree to the new terms of service. From 15 May, those users will no longer be able to send or read messages but will continue to be able to receive calls and notifications for a “short time”.
Oliver Dowden expected to meet US company, as No 10 says UK will ‘defend free speech and journalism’
The UK government is “obviously concerned” at the repercussions of Facebook’s shutdown of large numbers of news and public information resources in Australia, Downing Street has said, confirming that the culture secretary will meet the US company this week.
Oliver Dowden is “expecting to meet Facebook this week”, Boris Johnson’s spokesperson said, adding that the date had yet to be confirmed.
Australia’s prime minister says Facebook is back at the negotiating table after the tech giant this week blocked news on its site in the country.
However, despite Scott Morrison saying Facebook has “tentatively friended us again”, the company has publicly indicated no change in its opposition to the proposed law requiring social media platforms to pay for links to news content.
The former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has declared that Australian politicians are frightened of Rupert Murdoch. Speaking under parliamentary privilege at Parliament House in Canberra, Rudd said the ‘Murdoch mob’ was seeking ‘compliant politicians’.
He told an inquiry into media diversity that politicians were fearful of facing a ‘systematic campaign’
News remains blocked as satirical websites are reinstated and Qanon and anti-vaxxers continue to be unaffected
Facebook may wait up to a week before unblocking some of the pages of hundreds of non-media organisations hit by its news ban, while anti-vaccination content and misinformation continues to run rampant on the social media platform.
News was blocked on Facebook in Australia on Thursday morning in response to the federal government’s news media code, which would require Facebook to negotiate with news publishers for the payment for content.
Stopping Trump, reforming Facebook and risking his life to make a Borat sequel. In an exclusive interview, the actor unveils his plans for a revolution – and reveals how it feels to come out as himself
Seven months ago, Sacha Baron Cohen was in the back of a speeding ambulance. It was an escape car, and he was fleeing a gun rally. The Borat producers had chosen the ambulance as it could blend in, accommodate a small film crew and, if necessary, hasten a trip to hospital.
Baron Cohen – dressed as Borat, himself disguised as a country singer – had just led the crowd of far-right conspiracy theorists in a singalong. At first, they happily joined in: “Obama, what we gonna do? / Inject him with the Wuhan flu.” Then one or two smelled a rat. Then they all stormed the stage.
Trade group chairman says robust regulation is needed to rein in monopolistic tech firms
Facebook’s move to block all media content in Australia shows why countries need robust regulation to stop tech firms behaving like a “schoolyard bully”, the head of the UK’s news media trade group has said.
Henry Faure Walker, the chair of the News Media Association, said Facebook’s ban during a pandemic was “a classic example of a monopoly power being the schoolyard bully, trying to protect its dominant position with scant regard for the citizens and customers it supposedly serves”.
Social media giant blames proposed media bargaining code for decision; some restrictions remain in place in Victoria as businesses reopen. Follow all the developments live
Meanwhile, the government which absolutely tore apart Australia Post executive Christine Holgate for awarding executives Cartier watches as bonuses (Holgate resigned, after Scott Morrison called the combined $20,000 bonus “disgraceful” in a parliament) executives at the NBN Co received $78m in personal bonuses in the second half of last year. During a pandemic.
Paul Fletcher effectively told ABC radio he didn’t have a problem with it, as the NBN was critical with keeping Australia running during the pandemic lockdowns. (One could argue the same for Australia Post, but anyway)
The Australia Institute has reponded to Facebook’s news.
Peter Lewis, director of the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology says it might time for people to close their accounts:
Facebook’s decision to prevent users viewing for sharing public interest journalism will make it a weaker social network,”
The social network is destroying its social license to operate. Facebook actions mean the company’s failures in privacy, disinformation, and data protection will require a bigger push for stronger government regulation.
Company says it has made decision ‘with a heavy heart’ in response to proposed media bargaining code
Facebook has followed through on its threat to ban Australians from seeing or posting news content on its site in response to the federal government’s news media code.
The tech giant’s Australian and New Zealand managing director, Will Easton, said this it would block links to Australian publishers from being posted, while all Australian users would not be able to share or see content from any news outlets, both Australian and internation.
Home affairs has made more than 500 requests for information to be removed from social media
The Department of Home Affairs has made more requests for misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic to be removed from Facebook than any other government department in Australia since March last year, Guardian Australia has learned.
Despite not having direct responsibility over social media companies like Facebook and Twitter, or being responsible for the government’s response to the pandemic, Peter Dutton’s mega agency has sent more than 500 takedown requests for misinformation and scams related to -19, a department spokesperson told Guardian Australia.
Despite protestations from both companies, the Australian parliament is set to pass legislation it says is needed to boost public interest journalism
The Australian parliament is poised to pass a landmark media law that would make Google and Facebook pay news publishers for displaying their content.
The Australian law is separate to a deal Facebook made to pay mainstream UK news outlets millions of pounds a year to license their articles, but has a similar motivation.
Firm stood against Facebook and Google over plan to make tech giants pay news organisations
Microsoft is calling for the US and the EU to follow Australia in introducing rules that require technology companies to share revenue with news organisations and support journalism.
The company, which stood against Facebook and Google in supporting the proposal, argues that it is necessary to impose such a levy to create a level playing field between large tech firms and independent media organisations.
Soo Youn is considering giving up the apps. She speaks to those who have already taken the plunge – with liberating results
My memory and recall are alarmingly good – borderline photographic. But when I used Instagram, I found it would short-circuit my recall in an alarming way. I’d be describing something mid-sentence and I’d just stop speaking, unable to finish. So I rarely use it.
But my attention span – and my posture, eyes and sleep – are still being degraded by other technology and my dependence on it. In my pandemic life, technology is a lifeline – 90% of my social and work life happens on one of four screens.
I’m flirting with the idea of giving up social media and maybe even ... texts. I am fascinated by people like Justine Haupt, a quantum communications engineer who has never owned a smartphone. She also builds and sells rotary cellphones. Yes, rotary cellphones.
What would my life be like if getting in touch with people required me to communicate with purpose, memorize numbers again, and dial with my fingers, instead of, accidentally, my butt?
For my sake – and yours – I sought inspiration from people who have already crossed into a more analog life.
Exclusive: Sheer quantity of abusive material hindering detection while Facebook move to greater encryption is a further blow
The vast, and growing, volume of child abuse material being created and shared online is threatening to overwhelm police efforts to tackle it, senior officers have told the Guardian.
And the situation is likely to worsen, National Crime Agency (NCA) child abuse lead Rob Jones warned, if social media sites such as Facebook press ahead with further encryption of messaging services.
The Covid crisis has turbo-charged profits and share prices. But are the big six now too powerful for regulators to ignore?
The coronavirus pandemic has wrought economic disruption on a global scale, but one sector has marched on throughout the chaos: big tech.
Further evidence of the industry’s relentless progress has come in recent weeks with the news that Apple and Amazon both raked in sales of $100bn (£72bn) over the past three months – 25% more than Tesco brings in over a full year.
Facebook has said it will no longer algorithmically recommend political groups to users, but experts warn that isn’t enough
Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO, announced last week the platform will no longer algorithmically recommend political groups to users in an attempt to “turn down the temperature” on online divisiveness.
Instagram and WhatsApp – owned by Facebook and used to organise protests – also restricted as UN secretary general condemns coup
Myanmar’s army has ordered internet service providers to block accessto Facebook as it attempts to stamp out signs of dissent, days after it ousted the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Facebook, one of the most popular means of communication in Myanmar, has been used to coordinate a civil disobedience campaign that saw health workers at dozens of hospitals walk out of their jobs on Wednesday to protest against the army’s actions. It has also been used to share plans for evening protests, where residents have taken to their balconies to bang pots and pans, a symbolic act to drive away evil.
Facebook says group, which has 157,000 members, was taken down for allegedly violating policies unrelated to stock price surges
Facebook has taken down the popular Wall Street discussion group, Robinhood Stock Traders, in a move that its founder described as backlash for conversations buoying shares of GameStop Corp and other companies this week.
GameStop, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc and BlackBerry have been at the centre of a market battle as individual investors coordinating on social media including Reddit, and using trading apps such as Robinhood, bought shares and squeezed hedge funds that had bet that those struggling companies would tank.
Cases included content on Covid misinformation and hate speech, and panel will rule soon on the decision to suspend Trump
Facebook’s oversight board, the “supreme court” set up by the company to relieve Mark Zuckerberg of having the final say over moderation, has issued its first decisions, overturning the social network’s choices on four of the five first cases it has heard.
The cases, all of which were appeals to reinstate content taken down by Facebook, covered a wide range of topics, from female nudity, to Russian-language ethnic slurs, through islamophobia and Covid misinformation. The board’s decisions are binding under the agreement between Facebook and its quasi-independent overseer. Facebook now has seven days to restore content in the four cases where the board deemed it necessary.