There are two interpretations of Facebook pulling news out of News Feed in Australia. The positive one is that Facebook stood on principle, defended the net and refused to be blackmailed by Murdoch and his devil league. The cynical interpretation is in the next tweet.... 1/
The cynical interpretation of Facebook pulling news from the service in Australia is that news is a pain in the ass and they'd be much happier returning to puppies, parties, and getting people laid: less cost of moderating, less bad PR, less lobbying. Time will tell. 2/
Recall that Facebook already did its deal with the devil, Murdoch, in the U.S. when Zuckerberg gave a check to the devil's henchman, Robert Thomson, at a New York event. The difference in Australia is that legislation was not at stake. 3/
I'll remind that Facebook was not started for news, nor Twitter or Google. Our users took news there because these platforms provided functionality news organizations did not. News has been a pain for them. The net result either way is that news will suffer with less innovation.
The real problem with Facebook's decision, of course, is that users' disinformation will be there but news won't be there to act as a counterweight.
You can follow @jeffjarvis.
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