SOCIAL

After France, Australia Set To force Facebook And Google To Share Ad Revenue With Local News Outlets

Published

3 years ago

20 April 2020

Australia will force Facebook and Alphabet’s Google to share advertising revenue with local media firms, the country’s treasurer said on Monday, becoming one of the first countries to require digital platforms to pay for content they use.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the move comes after talks with Facebook and Alphabet failed to yield a voluntary code to address complaints by domestic media players that the tech giants have too tight a grip on advertising, their main source of income, according to a report by Reuters.

“We understand the challenge that we face, this is a big mountain to climb,” Frydenberg told reporters in Canberra. “These are big companies that we are dealing with but there is also so much at stake, so we’re prepared for this fight.”

Earlier this month, France‘s competition authority ordered Google to pay news outlets for using snippets of their content in its search results and in the company’s news aggregation service.

In a similar move, Australia is now forming a code of conduct that will force Google and Facebook to pay some moolah to media businesses for surfacing their content.

The government has now asked the country’s competition watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to frame a mandatory code of conduct between media outlets and digital platforms after talks stalled on content payment rules.

The government scrapped its initial plan to come up with a voluntary code by November and has asked ACCC to submit its draft mandatory code by July, to be passed into legislation shortly thereafter, the treasurer said.

Frydenberg said the mandatory code will include sharing of data, ranking and display of news content and the sharing of revenue generated from news, adding that it would also establish penalty and binding dispute resolution mechanisms.

ALSO READ Facebook Takes On Zoom, Announces Workplace Rooms For Work

Australia’s online advertising market is worth about almost A$9 billion ($5.72 billion) a year and has grown more than eight-fold since 2005.

For every A$100 spent on online advertising in Australia, excluding classifieds, nearly a third goes to Google and Facebook, an ACCC report on digital platforms published in June last year showed.

Last December, Australia said Google and Facebook would have to agree to new rules to ensure they do not abuse their market power and damage competition, or the government would impose new controls.

Facebook expressed dismay at the government move on Monday.

“We’re disappointed by the government’s announcement, especially as we’ve worked hard to meet their agreed deadline,” Facebook said.

“We’ve invested millions of dollars locally to support Australian publishers through content arrangements, partnerships and training for the industry,” Facebook Australia and New Zealand Managing Director Will Easton said in an emailed statement.

Google said it would continue to cooperate with plans for the media code of conduct.

“We have sought to work constructively with industry, the ACCC and government to develop a code of conduct, and we will continue to do so in the revised process set out by the Government today,” a Google spokesperson said.

Monday’s move also comes as the new coronavirus pandemic hits Australia’s media business hard, with several regional outlets reporting steep declines in advertising revenue.

Pending the new code, the federal government last week unveiled a support package for the local media businesses including a 12-month waiver of spectrum tax for commercial television and radio broadcasters, and a A$50 million public interest news gathering program.

ALSO READ Facebook Launches Campaign In Sub- Saharan Africa To Help Spot False News

Up Next

WhatsApp Increases Group Call Limit From 4 To 8 People

DigitalTimesNG

SOCIAL

Meta To Spend $14million On Mark Zuckerberg’s Personal Security

Published

1 month ago

17 February 2023

DigitalTimesNG

Mark Zuckerberg, META CEO

Meta says it is increasing the amount of money it spends on Mark Zuckerberg’s personal security by $4 million, taking the total to $14 million.

Techspot reports that this comes as the company eliminates thousands of jobs and its CEO talks about 2023 being the “year of efficiency.”

Meta revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the annual pre-tax allowance to cover Zuckerberg’s security costs has increased from $10 million, which had stayed the same since 2018, to $14 million.

Last week, Meta’s board of directors decided that the 40% increase was “appropriate and necessary under the circumstances.”

Meta said that the higher amount was “to address safety concerns due to specific threats to his safety arising directly as a result of his position as Meta’s founder, Chairman, and CEO.”

The $14 million per year is to pay for “additional personnel, equipment, services, residential improvements, or other security-related costs” for Zuckerberg and his family.

That’s a lot of money, but the final figure for keeping Meta’s CEO safe will be even higher as the filing doesn’t include other security expenses.

Last year, the company spent $16.8 million protecting Zuck on top of the $10 million allowance for a total of $26.8 million, and it spent $23.44 million protecting its founder in 2020.

Most big tech companies spend a lot of money keeping their CEOs and other top execs safe, but Zuckerberg’s costs exceed all others by a wide margin.

Meta spending millions of dollars to keep its boss and his family safe is unlikely to please the 11,000 people the company has laid off recently, a move that the CEO took accountability for.

ALSO READ UK-Nigeria Tech Hub And Google Collaborate For Startups

Zuckerberg’s talk of Meta becoming leaner while calling 2023 the “year of efficiency” now rings slightly hollow, too.

Meta’s filing also notes that its founder has a salary of just $1 per year, but his shares in the company mean his earnings are much higher.

Zuckerberg might not be in Bloomberg’s top ten billionaires list anymore, but his $64.2 billion fortune makes him the 18th richest person in the world.

SOCIAL

WhatsApp Adds New Status Features

Published

2 months ago

8 February 2023

DigitalTimesNG

Meta is adding several new features to WhatsApp status, which lets users post disappearing pictures and other media, reports The Verge.

Once the features roll out over the coming weeks, you’ll be able to react to people’s posts with an emoji, limit who can see your status, and post voice messages.

According to an announcement post, the status emoji reactions work similar to how they do on Instagram; when you swipe up on the post, you get the option to choose from one of eight emojis. (The options are 😍,😂,😮,😥,🙏,👏,🎉, and 💯.)

While a WhatsApp blog post calls emoji reactions the No. 1 requested feature after it launched the ability to react to messages last year, analysts feel the Private Audience Selector is the most useful addition announced today.

The feature lets you change who can see your statuses, with the option to show it to everyone, hide it from certain contacts, or only show it to specific people.

According to Meta, the options you pick will be the default for the next status you post, but you’ll be able to change it without changing the visibility of past statuses.

Other features are small quality-of-life improvements. Statuses that include links will also be more visually appealing — Meta says there’ll now be previews for the site or page that the link will take you to.

WhatsApp is also trying to make it clearer when people post status by adding a ring around their profile picture in the chat lists, group participant lists, and contact info screens.

ALSO READ Twitter Tests New Voice Tweeting Feature

SOCIAL

Meta To Open Operation Centre For 2023 Elections In Nigeria

Published

2 months ago

3 February 2023

DigitalTimesNG

Meta has announced plans to activate an elections operations centre for the 2023 general elections in Nigeria.

Meta, formerly known as Facebook stated that it was investing in people and technology to reduce the spread of misinformation and remove harmful content across its apps.

This it said is to help ensure a safe and secure general election in the country.

The social media giant disclosed this in a post titled, ‘How Meta is Preparing for Nigeria’s 2023 General Elections’ by its Head of Public Policy for Anglophone West Africa, Adaora Ikenze.

It stated that its work towards the elections would continue in the lead-up to, during, and after the vote.

“As Election Day approaches, we will activate a Nigeria-specific Elections Operations Centre focused on identifying potential threats across our apps and technologies in real-time, accelerating our response time.

“This initiative will bring together experts from across our company on our intelligence, data science, engineering, research, operations, public policy and legal teams,” the statement disclosed.

Meta explained that part of its strategy to combat misinformation and false news would involve removing serious kinds of misinformation from Facebook and Instagram, such as content that could contribute to imminent violence or physical harm, or intended to suppress voting.

It stated that for the Nigerian elections, it would remove photos and videos shared out of context that falsely depict ballot stuffing, acts of violence, or weapons.

It said that it was working with independent fact-checking organisations such as AFP, Africa Check, Dubawa, and Reuters.