Adam Morton, managing partner of client services at creative media agency UM London, leads us through just what happened over the last few weeks when Australia lost news from Facebook.
As crowds returned to Melbourne Park to watch powerful tennis heats at the Australian Open, another battle down-under stole the headlines (literally). Facebook, in response to the ACCC News Media Bargaining Code looking to tax tech giants for publishing links to news sites, suddenly removed news content from its platform in Australia.
This long-running contest over online news is complex, with money, power and the fundamentals of the internet all part of the game. It’s a difficult one for all players to manage, which might explain some of the questionable tactics that have been employed throughout the match to date.