Facebook blocked all news content in a Australia on Thursday – users cannot share news links and Facebook Pages of media account are taken down.
This is in response to Australian government’s proposed law, which requires payment deals between media outlets and tech companies over content.
This is also one day after Google stroke a deal with News Corp, the media giant. Under the proposed law, Google will need to pay for news content if they appear in search results.
1/ Why Google and Facebook chose different routes (at least for now)?
I think their ad business are fundamentally different.
Facebook ads is seen on Facebook platforms, but Google ads is seen on both Google products and third-party websites.
Google is enabling third-party advertisers (think about the ads on newspaper’ website) to make money, e.g. AdSense. They are partners, and this network of advertisers is valuable to Google.
Facebook’s ads is sold by getting to know users better and letting users stay on its platforms longer. Traffic is important to Facebook, so news is important as a form of content that users want to see. However, Facebook also thinks it is giving media outlets traffic in return. More important, ads sold by Facebook is not relying on those media outlet.
2/ What content should be on social media?
Instagram is in a purer form of social media, so does Twitter. They are usually gravitating towards certain types of contents. On the other hand, products such as Facebook’ main app are aggregating all kinds of “feeds” as long as they can drive traffic.
I think the two types are both here to stay.
Another related issue is how to regulate contents, which has been an increasingly important issue in the US and globally.
“Regulate more” or “regulate less”?
I think either way more regulatory interventions (government) is most likely inevitable.
If platforms regulate less, regulators may think Section 230 is providing to much protection and platforms are not doing enough for their social responsibility.
If platforms regulate more, regulators might think they have too much power, which is also risky. And as they moderate more, it costs more and they may be challenged more often on their decisions.
“Public square” is not easy. “Digital living room” is where Facebook may find more flexibility in contents.
Paying for news might be one of the solutions to navigate some content risk, e.g. fake news, misinformation. However, fake news or misinformation might be the traffic driver that Facebook values.