Re:Facebook Australia: PM Scott Morrison 'will not be intimi...
by L_226 on Thursday February 18, 2021 @06:06AM
(#26178441)
Australian here. Laws absolutely apply on the internet - if you can enforce them. FB here decided that Australia __could__ enforce this law, and chose to comply with it by not hosting links that the law would require them to pay for. If the LNP was actually serious about "controlling" foreign multinationals or "protecting" local businesses, they would simply enforce the tax obligations for these companies correctly. Note that Newscorp avoids tax in Australia [0], yet somehow they are owed money by FB for the privilege of having their content distributed on FB's graph?
[0] - https://www.crikey.com.au/2020/12/11/news-corp-tax-dodging/
Re:Facebook Australia: PM Scott Morrison 'will not be intimi...
by hyperionplays on Thursday February 18, 2021 @05:57AM
(#26178390)
They are heavily bank rolled and supported by Murdoch controlled media, tech giants allow smaller non-Murdoch controlled media to get more reach within Australia. This legislation was pushed for, drafted by and endorsed heavily by Murdoch controlled entities. A large number of the staffers for this governments politicians are all ex-Murdoch staff.
This current government has a long history of only doing things their donors ask for and not siding with the best interests of the public.
Erm ... do laws not apply on the internet? That's a very sweeping criticism and not one I'm on board with.
> The current government doesn't stand up for anything except money.
I'll have to take your word for that. From here it looks like a positive development, or at least an interesting one, a nation state entering open conflict with a tech giant.
(Not that I'm going to be able to vote for some time, but last time I lived in Aus was under the Gillard government, and I did not form favourable opinions about the liberal-national coalition. I'm not arguing with you from a position of support for them)