A #thread from @ConversationEDU's editor @mishaketch:

So Facebook is playing hardball. Rather than accept an ACCC bargaining code that might see it pay some media organisations for some content, it says it plans to ban Australian news from Instagram and Facebook.

The move comes on the heels of a Google campaign warning Youtube and its search engine are under threat from regulatory overreach.
We’ve seen this before – the platforms have responded the same way to attempts at regulation in other parts of the world.

Both have legitimate concerns about the ACCC bargaining code + zero compunction about throwing their weight around.

But consider this: just 2wks ago global human rights group @Avaaz released a report claiming misleading health advice about COVID on FB had racked up ~3.8b views.

It found the misinformation published by Facebook reached 4x as many eyeballs as content they published from credible sources such as the @WHO.

FB might ponder whether wall-to-wall QAnon is an appealing notion. And in the meantime, the wisdom of FB AU + NZ MD Will Easton telling AU journos their work doesn’t bring much value to his company brings to mind the line about not upsetting anyone who buys ink by the barrel.

Besides, as Rob Nicholls from the
@UNSW business school writes today: https://bit.ly/2Gl5Pad  the negotiating tactic could backfire.