The place is going berserk over the Facebook holocaust of Australian pages and we’re struggling to take much interest in it but are in an obvious minority:
They are autistic enough to nuke their own page:
SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook banned its own Facebook page in Australia pic.twitter.com/ghbkxkNg4w
— Norbert Elekes (@NorbertElekes) February 18, 2021
It’s almost jejune to say that you shouldn’t have Facebook or you should delete it if you do but it can be useful for some things:
- stalking/reconnecting with high school friends, old flames, etc
- with some small businesses/organisations it’s the best, or even only, way to contact them
- if you have a small business you may rely on Facebook to acquire customers
At a certain age 1 can be fun. 2 can be necessary for some things. For 3 the cyber love of our life, Quillette queenpin Claire Lehmann, is having a feminine meltdown about it:
Obviously my opinions are biased, because I've been adversely affected. I realise I might not be treating the issue completely rationally. Take my opinions with a grain of salt.
— Claire Lehmann 🇦🇺🦘 (@clairlemon) February 19, 2021
It’s not only news organisations that are unable to post anymore, but also government agencies, like the Bureau of Meteorology, and many others:
Facebook has removed the @BOM_au page amidst the shutdown of Australian news pages, and on a day with flooding rain in QLD and catastrophic fire danger in WA. Warnings need to get to as wide an audience as possible as a matter of safety. Shocking.
— Nate Byrne (@SciNate) February 17, 2021
The two Bergs, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, and Mark Zuckerberg, just can’t get it together, despite however many phone conversations, and neither side looks likely to buckle. The law in question, which will get passed likely next week, and which some Canadian authorities have said they will imitate, requires Facebook to pay for what are often just *links* to news content, with a blurb and image presumably, and it does include some other peculiar things, like a requirement to inform news outlets here of any algorithm changes Facebook makes that would impact them.
But whatever harms Facebook must be good, you’d guess, even if some small businesses are going to suffer, at the worst possible time.
This old classic is obligatory whenever Zuckerborg is mentioned:
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