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HomeLatest NewsWhat’s the Meta with news on social media?

What’s the Meta with news on social media?

In the next few months, or even weeks, all legitimate news could be wiped completely from Facebook and Instagram in Australia, meaning almost half of Manly Observer’s audience  – phenomenally more 110,000 followers – could be eradicated in an instant. Thankfully the number of monthly website visitors accessing us directly (between 50k-150k) should remain stable.

The platform that provided: live coverage on floods, fires, and COVID, cautioned residents when police announced an armed man was running through Brookvale, directed readers away from highly congested areas when major collisions occurred on our roads, gave you a nudge when the bioluminescence came to town.

Our website is well read and offers a great selection of longer reads on local issues – but it’s the social media that has provided the instant news needed when most useful, as well as engaged a new generation of news consumers via stories and reels.

Much like many of you experienced on 18 February 2021, when Facebook blocked all access to news – as well as vital community groups like the SES – a news ban could be enforced anytime from July 2024 (right now).

But why?

Facebook first enforced that news ban because the Federal Government insisted it pay the major media outlets (aka not us) for the news it was sharing on its platforms. Eventually, lucrative deals were struck, and the ban was lifted.

However, since that time, Facebook – now rebranded under the umbrella name Meta – has been deprioritising news to make it harder to access. It announced in February that when the contracts expire in July, it will not be renewing them. It argues it simple doesn’t need news outlets other platforms anymore, so why should they pay?

Unfortunately, while local news outlets like Manly Observer never asked nor received money from Meta, we have been classified by them as a news outlet and will be affected by any news ban or deprioritisation (including not turning up in search functions).

If the government attempts to force Meta to pay (eg “designates it), the social media giant will bypass it by not showing news on its platforms at all in our country.

Why should we care?

Aside from losing easy access to your free local news, the issue with removing trusted news content is that social platforms will replace it with more extreme content that keeps users more engaged. It means content becomes for polarising and agitating, and public discourse becomes even more argumentative and conspiratorial.

It also means access to important and useful local information becomes more challenging, which can have very real consequences for communities and individuals in a time of crisis.

A drawing by Northern Beaches artist Tristan Grindrod highlights the local publisher response against social media giants.

What are we doing?

Manly Observer continues to share our content on Meta in the hope an amiable outcome can be reached between the three major players (Meta, Government, Mainstream Media). We owe a lot of our success to Meta, and want to keep that relationship going (cover image may not help there!)

However, a democracy has no room for news bans. And so we have also invested our available funds (with thanks to local advertisers and community donations) to create a Manly Observer app which provides the same short timely updates and push notifications on reader’s mobiles that Instagram and Facebook have provided.

Initially, it will provide a simple picture and short text news service and host videos through its YouTube channel, but eventually this will include events, traffic, longform and even a portal for audio content, including some of the best interviews and podcasts by other outlets such as community radio.

It will continue to be free, now and always.

What can you do?

Download the app.  It’s available right now for Apple phones and in the next fortnight for Android. Tell your friends.

And don’t forget to pop over to our website anytime (save it in your favourites!) www.manlyobserver.com.au

 

 

Got time and want to read a longer explainer?

In 2021, the Australian government decided Meta and Google should pay news publishers for posting their content on their platforms.

This caused Meta to make the controversial decision of stripping news off its platforms during the height of COVID-19 border closures. A time when misinformation was already rampant.

Google and Meta eventually agreed to pay $200 million to mainstream media companies, but this contract finished in July 2024.

Despite not getting a slice of the pie, local and independent news organisations – many of which had only been recently cut or paywalled due to budget restraints of larger media organisations – rose from the ashes and have thrived on social platforms for the past four years.

Now, Meta has released a statement saying they will not be renewing contracts with the Australian Government to pay for news, as it’s no longer a profitable model.

“We know that people don’t come to Facebook for news and political content — they come to connect with people,” Meta released in a statement.

“The number of people using Facebook News in Australia and the US has dropped by over 80 per cent last year.”

The multi-billion dollar organisation has offered to allow news to use their platforms freely but also threatened to pull them if the government attempts to make the company pay.

Although they have unsuccessfully pulled this stunt in the past, Meta has proven they are willing to play hardball as they have recently stripped news from their sites in Canada over a similar dispute.

Last year, Canada passed its Online News Act which forces platforms to pay local publishers for news.

Meta disagreed, calling the new requirement flawed and has since scrapped Canadian news from its platforms for over nine months. Readers travelling Canada can not access Manly Observer on any Meta platforms.

This brings us to our predicament in Australia, a three-way standoff between Meta, mainstream news and the Australian Government.

A decision will be made, probably some time in the next three months, but we just don’t know when.

Local and independent news are collateral damage at this point, but we are far from finished.

If you like the free service we provide and believe in our cause of keeping the community informed, then join us on some of our alternative platforms – we still have plenty to offer.

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