Tag: Google

Feathers will fly as Willie puts the cat among the kiwis

Some time this week Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson will set the cat among the kiwis. He will introduce the Digital Bargaining Bill to Parliament.

The Bill is expected to mirror legislation passed in Australia and Canada that forces digital platforms to negotiate fairly, and in good faith, with news organisations for the use of their news content.

The passage of legislation in those countries prompted immediate strong-arm reactions from Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, and ominous rumblings from Alphabet, the owner of Google.

Days before Australia’s News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code came into force in 2021, Facebook cut access to all news content for Australian users. It flailed around and banned everything it thought was Australian news. That included some government pages and even a page of advice on bike trails.

The total news ban lasted only a few days. It was lifted after a sizeable negative worldwide public reaction and assurances to Meta that the code would not be invoked by the Australian Government if the platform owners negotiated in good faith. Google had already blinked and had done deals with Australian media companies.

Canada’s Online News Act was given the Royal Assent in July and at the beginning of August Meta blocked Canadians’ access to news on Facebook and Instagram. Google has warned it could remove Canadian news from its platforms in Canada when the law takes effect (up to 180 days from the Royal Assent). However, Google’s owner is still negotiating with the Canadian Government over the regulations that would flow from the law. Meta has not joined those discussions.

A coalition of the country’s broadcasters and publishers last week asked the Competition Bureau to investigate the ban and use its powers to force Meta to reverse course. Continue reading “Feathers will fly as Willie puts the cat among the kiwis” →

The art of turning good news into a train wreck

This is an on-the-one-hand-but-on-the-other-hand commentary.

On the one hand, legislation forcing ‘big tech’ to pay for the news they appropriate from New Zealand media is welcome. On the other hand, fence-sitting for the past two years robbed the Ardern Government of an opportunity to give the move true international impact.

The government has had a soft approach to the social media platforms and search engines (save for the Christchurch Call on harmful content) because it relies heavily on them for direct contact with the electorate. The Prime Minister has 1.9 million Facebook followers and 1.7 million on Instagram. She may wish to suggest her 800,000 Twitter followers follow her elsewhere as Elon Musk turns it into a swamp.

The government could – and should – have collaborated with its Australian counterpart at the beginning of last year to pass identical legislation on both sides of the Tasman forcing ‘big tech’ to negotiate deals or face compulsory arbitration. Such a united front would have sent a stronger message to Meta, Alphabet et al than this country could do alone. It would also reinforce a determination to take an international approach to regulating those who believe they are laws unto themselves. Continue reading “The art of turning good news into a train wreck” →

News media face distrust by association

A new study suggests that the news media’s tanking levels of public trust may made worse merely by association with social media.

The study, released this month by the Reuters Institute at Oxford University, has exposed gaps between trust in news via conventional delivery and the same thing consumed via social media.

It doesn’t matter whether people use social media or not: Levels of trust is lower if they simply associate news with the platforms.

The gap varies between platforms and between countries but the overall finding is that levels of trust in news on social media, search engines, and messaging apps is consistently lower than audience trust in information in the news media more generally.

And our media is becoming more and more associated with social media. Continue reading “News media face distrust by association” →

It’s those geeks with gifts again

Beware of geeks bearing gifts.

I gave that warning in a column seven years ago and repeated it here last November. I’ll say it again: Beware of geeks bearing gifts.

I make no apologies for sounding like a cracked record.

On the face of it, New Zealand media companies appear to be trotting along nicely in their bid to get some money for the content that Google and Facebook have been freely appropriating.

The Commerce Commission has issued a draft determination allowing members of the News Publishers Association to bargain collectively with Meta and Google on payment for content. The NPA is a mix of metropolitan and regional newspaper publishers but in this initiative it is minus NZME, which has already brokered deals with both Google and Facebook. NZME’s agreement with the latter is not payment for content but support for NZME’s “subscriber growth and retention”.

Call it ‘content’, call it ‘retention’, no matter. They’re paying up one way or another. All’s good.

But is it? Continue reading “It’s those geeks with gifts again” →