Just days after Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg said the social media platform would focus on ‘friends’ and start ranking news sources, billionaire ‘content creator’ Rupert Murdoch has issued a statement demanding that publishers pay fees to carry the news that its users post and share online.
Bloomberg notes that Facebook sent tremors through the news industry last week when it announced plans to redirect the site’s 2 billion-plus users more toward posts from friends and family and away from media content.
And as we detailed, the company also plans to let users gauge how trustworthy news sources are to avoid perceptions of bias and address claims it has helped spread fake news.
Which Mike Shedlock slammed…
So people get to rate the credibility of news. Based on what?
The answer is easy. People will believe any story that presents a view they want to hear.
Is there a point to this?
Sure, Facebook wants people to waste still more time on Facebook debating what is or isn’t fake new.
Rating news stores based on credibility is time-wasting silliness.
That’s precisely why Facebook introduced the feature. Don’t fall for it.
Here is Mark Zuckerberg’s blog post explaining the radical change in Facebook’s model.
This has prompted Rupert Murdoch, the executive chairman of News Corp. to issue a statement today, ramping up the rhetoric between content creators and publishers…
“If Facebook wants to recognize ‘trusted’ publishers then it should pay those publishers a carriage fee similar to the model adopted by cable companies…
The publishers are obviously enhancing the value and integrity of Facebook through their news and content but are not being adequately rewarded for those services.
We will closely follow the latest shift in Facebook’s strategy, and I have no doubt that Mark Zuckerberg is a sincere person, but there is still a serious lack of transparency that should concern publishers and those wary of political bias at these powerful platforms.”
It wasn’t just Facebook, Murdoch took a swing at Google too…
“Facebook and Google have popularized scurrilous news sources through algorithms that are profitable for these platforms but inherently unreliable.
Recognition of a problem is one step on the pathway to cure, but the remedial measures that both companies have so far proposed are inadequate, commercially, socially and journalistically.”
Murdoch also said earlier this month that News Corp. will keep an eye on Facebook’s newsfeed changes “for any signs that the weighting of news sites is politically motivated.”
Free-speech wars, begun they have.
via RSS http://ift.tt/2n1oTNs Tyler Durden