Facebook has reacted badly, as far as users are concerned. Clearly, Facebook programmers are tearing their hair out in implementing the removal of news content and are making silly errors.
For starters, Facebook removed its own content (briefly):
No content on Facebook’s own page?
As far as collateral damage goes, the government Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) content has been removed.
BoM content removed
I can still see some Channel 9 news content, but there are glitches such as being unable to open the comments.
The non-profit organisation that speaks for people affected by poverty, ACOSS (Australian Council of Social Service) has had its content removed! Is the censorship algorithm looking for the word “news” in page descriptions and acting on it? Check such affected pages to see if that’s the issue.
ACOSS content taken down.
The sports team AFL Women’s has been impacted too.
Domino’s pizza isn’t a news outlet. I think Facebook is making a point that almost everything can be “news”, so why not block everything? Perhaps it’s their quality, or boring menu, since Pizza Hut Australia is not blocked.
Yes, all overseas news outlets show no content, with the BBC UK content somehow slipping through this badly coded filter.
I am not sure why the UK Alzheimer’s Society page has no posts. It’s not a news organisation.
Why?
My views on this fiasco
Being a mere user of Facebook (therefore, the product) for a mix of content and discussion, I am merely inconvenienced. I do accept the position of Facebook and Google that they send eye balls to the news websites, therefore they should not need to pay for content. At least Google has made progress by signing up with some news outlets to pay for content, but Facebook has stuffed up. At best, they can improve their “kill switch” for the time other countries follow Australia’s lead and implement similar laws.
I have created personal accounts on other platforms in case I need to abandon Facebook. Some of my friends have left it permanently. I began to do that following two “community standards violation” warnings that I disagreed with. I am simply suggesting to fellow digital marketers that they consider spreading their ad budget across other platforms.
Postscript
Facebook lifted its news ban on 26 February. There was barely any mention of it by anyone on my timeline.
Given that SEO is my profession, I have been watching the stoush between segments of the Australian news media and Google Search. Some incredible stories have been written about what it could mean for Aussies if the search engine pulls out of Australia. This article Breaking up with Google is hard to do (saved at the Wayback Machine as it might be behind a paywall) prompted me to write this and later today, Google announced its News Showcase for Australia, leading to more interpretations of “What Will Google Do?”
Google announced that they have negotiated to begin paying for Australian News with publishers who have agreed to participate in the Google News Showcase program. It’s unclear if this is enough to stop Australian legislation that Google claims will force it to leave the country.
Google News Showcase
As best as I can tell, Google News Showcase was announced last year and launched in some countries, but I had not heard of it until today. It claims to be visible on the Google News app for Android and iPhone. It was apparently launched yesterday in Australia, but I cannot find it on the iPhone app. So far it’s just a news story, like last year’s launch in Europe.
The product will contain story panels that you can swipe and click to view the content. This Aussie version will include content from The Canberra Times, The Illawarra Mercury, The Saturday Paper, Crikey, The New Daily, InDaily, The Conversation and about 18 others.
I won’t go over what has been written copiously by the news media about this proposed legislation, but basically, a handful of news outlets would like to be paid by Google for linking to their material with a small snippet and perhaps a thumbnail image. A ridiculous aspect of this legislation is that it will require Facebook and Google to give 28 days’ notice of any change to its news algorithm if it will affect them in any way.
Google’s regional VP for Australia and New Zealand, Mel Silva issued an open letter, explaining its position, including its “solution”, namely this News Showcase that’s hard to find today. I quote one part here:
The ability to link freely between websites is fundamental to Search. This code creates an unreasonable and unmanageable financial and operational risk to our business. If the Code were to become law in its current form, we would have no real choice but to stop making Google Search available in Australia.
Public Reactions
Let’s begin with my reaction. The news outlets that complained to the ACCC are being ridiculous. Google has linked to almost every web page it can find. In a news context, Google provides free eyeballs to anything that is not behind a paywall. Google does not make money from organic search, unless a searcher notices an ad and clicks it.
This article prompted me to write this post: Breaking up with Google is hard to do – I disagree with the writer’s speculation that although Google is threatening to remove just Google Search, he decided to use alternatives to all Google services he could find to see what life without Google would look like. That’s fine as articles go, but it’s some reader reactions I saw on Facebook that were getting out of hand.
Readers were worried that they would lose access to their Gmail, YouTube, as well as the Google Search product. Worse, they would lose access to Facebook! Many people don’t read the articles before commenting. Facebook is only threatening to remove news content, not to remove the platform.
Why a Distraction?
I refer to the News Showcase announcement a distraction because it has not impressed some of the original complainants. They will not participate in negotiations until the Code is legislated. Source: Google launches News Showcase in Australia in sign of compromise over media code. Essentially, nothing seems to be changing in our Parliament as far as the legislative process is concerned. Our Prime Minister and Treasurer are unfazed. The only real concern for the government is if Google lays off most of its Australian staff.
My Predictions
Those Facebook commenters are making fanciful assumptions about what could happen. You CAN use Gmail, Google, Ads, AdSense etc at the dot com level or ones from other countries such as New Zealand or the UK. You will probably lose some localisation such as Google My Business results, but a quick check in google dot com for “pizza near me” shows local ads and local results.
A search for “pizza near me” in the global Google.comThe same search in google.com.au
The search result is almost identical and changes a little with each repeated search. Most of the time, the Australian site shows Google My Business (map) results for some local businesses, while the US site does not. The other regular search results are almost the same 10 URLs, but in a different order. SEO agencies will either curse or rejoice, depending on which listings are of their clients.
I think at best, Google will de-index some Australian news companies, which is fine by me. That will have no effect on our ability to read news in phone apps and on the news outlet’s website – some of which will probably have to loosen their paywalls. While Mel Silva has said “we would have no real choice but to stop making Google Search available in Australia“, I think that is pointless, other than to make a point (to coin a phrase).
Why do I think so? Google said in that article linked above:
This is not possible due to the extremely broad and vague definition of “news” in the Code—which includes any “content that reports, investigates or explains current issues or events of interest to Australians.” This goes far beyond what most of us would consider “news.” And the content we’d need to remove could be on any website at any time, not just the websites of the news businesses registered under the Code.
Can you imagine the ACCC getting into analysing Google results to find any content that reports, investigates or explains current issues or events of interest to Australians? That refers to pages other than from professional news media companies. This very article could be interpreted as “news content”. Parliamentary proceedings in Hansard could be interpreted as news. Of course a Google lawyer would make that worst-case interpretation.
I am not a lawyer; I am a search professional who owes his livelihood for the past 20 years to Google Search and Google Ads. I trained my son Keith to be a search professional. Should I be called to an Amicus Curiae situation in the future about this, I would be pointing out the ridiculousness of making Google Australia sack all its local staff and turn off its Search servers. Honestly, de-indexing news outlets should suffice.
As for Google’s revenue from ads, there will be an impact if a company advertises the same website in google dot com and in google dot com dot au (but with different ads). Google will only display a domain once per page. Very few companies would have such a model. Most advertisers would not want to move their ads to Google New Zealand or Google dot com (USA). The bids there might be higher or lower and Aussie eye balls might not know to go to those country versions. Users might go to Bing, as Microsoft is currently hoping. Perhaps Microsoft Advertising will pick up some of this PPC budget.
Google isn’t likely to risk losing its ad revenue for the sake of paying relative peanuts to the news outlets, or an ACCC fine. GOOG stock might take a hit, which won’t please a lot of Americans who have some of it. Thus, at best, it will remove all news content from its Australian index.
I cannot see Google blocking access to its overseas properties from Australian IP addresses across the world. That is, in effect, what many seem to be thinking. Remember, only the threat to remove Google.com.au has been made, not any other Google property such as YouTube, or Ads. Surely, those overseas Google properties would also be carrying Australian “news”?
OK, in that case, Googlebot could stop crawling and indexing ALL Australian domains, just in case they happen to discuss anything resembling “news”? See how ridiculous this is getting? I did not read a transcript of what has happened at the Parliamentary hearings, but I hope the lawmakers were given a dose of reality.
It’s really going to be a case of who blinks first. I’m happy to be proven wrong.
