Daniel Bernhard, from Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, joins us as we talk about an epic battle down under. The Australian government has taken on the role of David in an epic struggle with the Goliaths of Big Tech, Facebook and Google.
Australia demanded that Facebook and Google pay news organisations for use of their content. While Google finally decided to make a deal, Facebook chose to play dirty by blocking Australian news —this even included some government health and emergency pages. The world has criticized Facebook for removing legitimate news and information during the pandemic crisis.
Interestingly, Facebook has since reached an agreement with the Australian government—so what does this all mean?
Did Facebook further hurt its already tainted reputation?
What kind of impact will Australia’s new legislation actually have?
How do Canadian and American media companies feel about this deal?