IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK: Facebook Bans Australian News Platforms

Although our weekly news segments are usually focused on news stories that have gripped Australia, unfortunately for this week, we have been left in the dark!

This week social networking site Facebook has banned Australian news platforms across the country. Restricting key publishers from posting or sharing any news content on the site leaving Australians with no access to news via the social media platform. The shocking move by the social media giant comes after the Morrison government’s proposed media bargaining laws that would see major tech giants pay Australian news outlets for their content.

Facebook believe the proposed code simply misunderstands the relationship between Facebook and its publishers, insisting it’s a mutually beneficial relationship with the platform driving extensive traffic to news stories that might otherwise go unread.

This is a very different approach to that of Google’s. Last month, in response to the same proposed laws, Google threatened to completely pull its services from Australia, before backing down and agreeing to multi-million dollar contracts with the likes of Seven West Media, Nine and News Corp earlier this week.

This risky move could really pay off for the Australian media industry with a large influx of funds to our struggling newsrooms. Until then, the current situation is putting a massive strain on the industry and especially for us in PR. This is mainly due to the fact that we rely on up-to-date news as we scroll endlessly on social media as well as the exposure our clients receive from these news publications on the social media platform.

For the sake of the media industry and for those of us in a PR agency, let’s hope the two parties can agree to terms that allow us to have our beloved news back on our feeds.

By Michael Fitness – PR and Influencer Coordinator at InsideOut PR and #AsSeenON