The roughly $100 million a year that flows from Facebook to 13 Australian media companies under the News Media Bargaining Code comes up for renewal in the next 12 months. From just about all vantage points, yesteryear’s favourite social platform looks ready to slowly and steadily raise a large middle finger emoji to everyone involved.
And why wouldn’t it? Canadians are currently in a Meta news blackout that appears far less disastrous than itsslamming the company for “putting corporate profits ahead of people’s safety” hasn’t changed the outcome.Alex Ellinghausen Meta is adamant news is now only 3 per cent of what people see on Facebook. It should know – it made it that way, filling the void with AI-recommended pages and videos nobody ever cares about. One-fifth of Australians and Canadians apparently believe there was too much news on there anyway, according toIt’s times like this when a strong presence in Canberra can calm the nerves of media executives and publishers. Unfortunately, unlikewon’t be jumping in the ring to mediate the fight.