It is a shame we are in the current standoff with Facebook.

Sorry Binoy, I like FB and only laugh at your comparison between FB and the Dutch East India Company and its British equivalent.

How so Binoy?

It's easy for me to say, "stuff Facebook" because l have never used it and never will. But what about government bullying. There is no reason why efficient, modern companies should subsidise worn out ones that have been going downhill for the simple reason that fewer people are using them; and for that reason, advertisers have moved to where they will be noticed. That's progress that 'progressives' don't seem to be grasping.

I actually think the new media is progressive.

If you are good enough, and innovative enough, you can still produce quality writing and not blame new media for your demise.

Too many so-called experts associate quality with the old media, when clearly there are other new quality sources emerging, even if they pay far less and tend to be extreme left or right.

and no one forces you to use Facebook, thus the comparison with the past is kind of stupid.

I don't know what the fuss is about.
I still get links from family and as far as news is concerned I get
more than I can handle with TV, radio, and news web sites.

Yup! While I applaud the new, fake news free, code! I think the only thing that will change the sociopath at the helm, [your description not mine,] is the profit margin/curve and altering it via an unavoidable tax on the rivers of gold produced by the tax-free classifieds!

The only thing that self evidently matters to this monolith is money and the monetisation of content!

Hitting the locally generated revenue stream with an unavoidable 30% flat tax may get more cooperation far, far quicker than anything else, particularly if full cooperative compliance halved the new unavoidable flat tax!

The 1053 tax act needs to be jettisoned in favour of something that cannot be bypassed, while still inherently fair and I contend that it's the above and a parliament that grows a spine!

IF POWER CORRUPTS THEN ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY!

Leave it with you.
Alan B.

Ruthless corporation?

hardly, it has now compromised with the government to remove its ban.

only get paid from FB if a corporation and turnover of $150,000

Yes Chris and hardly perfect? Just a small step in the right direction that others might emulate before imposing another step toward purity?

One small step for Facebook, but a comparative, giant leap forward for the Australian news consumer!?
Alan B.