News was never part of the Facebook plan, so they’ll happily prove it

It’s probably not news to you at this point, but Facebook has blocked news from being shared on its platform. Why? I believe it’s simply to prove a point.

While the news ban came as a shock to many, others saw it coming. In September last year, Facebook threatened to remove news in Australia if the government was to pass the News Media Bargaining Code (which according to the government was meant to “address power imbalances between Australian news media businesses and digital platforms” but really was a move to make Facebook pay publishers, some of which are billion dollar multinationals in their own right, for their news to sit on Facebook). Reviewing the history of how this code came to existence, who lobbied for it and who spoke in its favor before the Government committee might give you some sense of who this code is really servicing. Meanwhile, Facebook argues the Code doesn’t take into account the value publishers gain from sharing their content on the platform.

And now, the social media giant has made good on its threat before the code has even passed through the Senate, which is expected to be sometime next week following the legislation being passed through the House of Representatives on February 17. The changes affected publishers, Australians and the international community almost instantly, with Australia waking up to a very different Facebook news feed last Thursday.