I'm not defending the new laws - I agree they're stupid. But all the public discussion about the laws in Australia, where I live, has focused on the giant publishers - News Corp and Nine Fairfax in particular. They were the primary lobbyists for the laws, and were the ones who would attain almost all the revenues from them.

My point is that Facebook's reaction is a tactical error in the PR battle. They've effectively conceded this themselves, having back-pedalled on at least some of the sites banned initially.

They could have responded in a way that won them support from the Australian populace, but instead they've made themselves seem worse than the AU government, which is quite a feat.