Facebook may face an further unintended consequence of their actions in regards to News when News Organisations start to more strongly promote their Apps to the public. The ABC has again put pop-up banners on their site as have others to point users to their Apps.
Will this reduce the reliance some have had on getting their News through Facebook Apps? I hope it does and it seems it may be having that effect.
A backdown?
As far as Facebook News goes, Zuckerberg can stick it where the sun does not shine.
Apart from not being able to share news items, on the first day which was a bit of a surprise, I’ve not been feeling that I’ve missed out on anything. I don’t care if they “walk back” anythng… or not.
Is the most cutting criticism of Facebook that our Politicians cannot live without it?
Everyone of them has a Facebook page.
The Qld Premier held a media event prior to Parliament resuming for 2021 live streamed to Facebook. (23 Feb 2021)
Craig Kelly even resigned from the Liberal Party to sound more time using Facebook.
Australia’s most media aware PM in one breath warned Australian’s not go to Facebook if they wanted information. 
Au contraire? You might need to read the following to consider
If how Facebook functions needs to be regulated - are we also asking for regulation of our Politicians and Governments use of it?
It would seem very much that they can’t live without it any more than most of it’s other users.
Facebook can only continue to win because?
A/ At least for as long as Governments and Politicians see it as essential to their interests.
B/ Politicians use Facebook because consumers made them do it.
C/ Facebook is smarter than the average Politician.
P.S. (added note)
For an another more informed view.
The tentacles are out! Today’s ‘announcement’
I really don’t know why people are panicking about not having access to Covid-19 information, when if you hit the actual link in the sidebar which is called “Covid 19 Information Centre” you get exactly what you need from government sources, according to your location. And that was never banned.
https://www.facebook.com/coronavirus_info/?page_source=bookmark
Happy to stay out of touch.
I’ll second that.
Yes, possibly for those who want others to know what they are doing every minute of the day. For others there are private messaging services.
You somehow managed to put words in my mouth, @phb! It was the ABC, in a link posted by @mark_m, that said that.
Edited to finally, hopefully correct attribution after making the error of which I accused @phb .
Except Facebook owns Messenger, Instagram and Whatsapp which are some of the most popular ‘private’ messaging apps
Actually it was not I. More a quirk of the system that attributes the content of a link to those who post it! It was actually the ABC and Peter Martin. Credit where credit is due?
Fortunately, I’m not on FaceBook or will ever be one of their loyal, supporters.
Well I for one find that Facebook is a very good place receive communications from organizations that I am interested in hearing from. Some news sites I follow (and therefore do not need to subscribe to read their content on their own sites).
Sport and animal welfare postings. Some comedy. Some science.
I filter out everything I don’t want to see, like inane postings from ‘friends’ I don’t even know. And have ads blocked.
I filter my friends 
My highlighting.
Is this not the very reason for the current argument with Facebook and Google?
Everything has a cost.
This is where I fail to understand the argument. The media company posts articles on Facebook. I choose to follow those those postings and can read them. The media company chooses this method of communication. Why should FB pay them anything?
A very market-based question. In fact, it often isn’t the media company posting the link. Most are posted by ordinary users.
Why Facebook is not like Google:
For me, the issues go beyond advertising and news.
“With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility” to quote Voltaire (or maybe Spiderman). With Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has manoeuvred himself into a position of power. Is Facebook fit to wield that power? Is Zuckerberg fit to head a corporation with that power?
Perhaps a greater issue is the broader one of taxation. For society to function, every entity (corporate or individual) must pay their share. It’s in the nature of Capitalism to avoid paying wherever possible. So how do we prevent large multinationals freeloading?
I think that FB is being looked at very seriously in the US and EU for anti-trust action.
At least Google has competition in the search engine area.
FB has a decreasing level of competition in the social media and messaging area.
They have bought Instagram and WhatsApp, and if they were hit with anti-trust action would possibly have to divest and sell off those companies.
Some interesting insights on the media bargaining code. Warning, some of the language might offend.
Absolute classic.
