What is happening between Facebook and Australia?
Beef between people is becoming too overrated - now private companies are literally going at war against entire countries! Capitalism at its worst ladies and gentlemen. Let’s study this in detail.
We’ve mentioned this before in previous blogs - the scandal of privacy and data with Facebook and WhatsApp’s new T&C’s is becoming an issue for a lot of users around the world, and rightfully so. Big tech companies have an immense power over your data and to be fair, none of it is evil in essence, at least at the moment. But also, no one really knows what goes on behind closed doors - we assume that Facebook listens to our conversations and uses the keywords to convert into something they can sell to other companies for their products. And these are just assumptions - we must admit that we don’t actually fully know how they use our data but regardless, it’s pretty shady. As a leading digital marketing agency operating in Dubai, Mint Stalk relies on data and insights for our market research and campaigns but the extent is limited to what happens on our clients’ pages, so we understand the frustrations of users when it comes to their personal data being taken away without their consent.
Recently, the Australian government decided to draft a legislation that would force Facebook and Google to pay news publishers for hosting their content as a fair remuneration for their original content. At the moment, everything is still being negotiated but it seems as if the Australian government won’t be backing down from that one. In the meantime, Facebook is blocking australian users from seeing, sharing and interacting with news content on the platform. At the moment, it’s only Google and Facebook that are being targeted but Josh Frydenberg, Australia’s federal treasurer, mentioned that other platforms could soon follow. He stated that this legislation is about giving a fair go for the Australian news media businesses and ensuring ongoing competitions as well as consumer protection and sustaining the media landscape. It’s a little bit arrogant from the Australian government to dictate to Facebook how to manage its activities, right ..? We can at least agree on that - many people don’t seem to appreciate that move from the Australian government.
The only issue with the government’s plans is that Facebook can just decide to take its business elsewhere and this is exactly what it did (although it did reverse its decision, lol), which in turn could have threatened Australia’s digital and economic landscape. Some of the news media pages saw their content completely deleted, or at least invisible for the time being. Other pages for essential health services were also shut down somehow, which made Facebook look a bit bad for a while (yes, because it’s still a pandemic and you just can’t be petty like that), even after having reinstated these pages. Google on the other hand, took a different approach by partnering up with News Corp, an Australian news media channel, in exchange for a significant sum of money for their news content and the Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, stated that “Facebook’s actions to unfriend the country were as arrogant as they were disappointing”. Wow. That’s almost as bad as when your parents used the word “disappointed” when you were young - you know you really messed up. It would be interesting to see what that conflict would have looked like in Dubai - here at Mint Stalk and as a digital marketing agency, our activities would be compromised a little for sure but I mean … As an experiment, it would be quite cool to see what the outcome would have been.
The extent to which Facebook operates is immense and this ‘news blackout’ strategy could affect both users and businesses to a really bad extent. Scott Morrison said that Facebook is being a corporate bully and he stands his ground saying that him and leaders of other nations won’t let themselves be intimidated. Facebook is good at taking your money and data but clearly struggles when it comes to giving some sort of compensation. This conflict between big techs and other corporations highlights the amount of power that Facebook and other big tech companies have over content. I mean, fine there is Twitter and Google but just imagine if Facebook was the only player? It would have caused a major issue. Here at Mint Stalk and as a leading digital and marketing agency operating in the UAE, we can see Facebook’s legitimacy being challenged by other platforms - the decisions taken over the years have not been the smartest and so many alternatives are now available that no one is scared or bothered to move away from it. And it’s good - this is capitalism at its best, when there’s competition. And we are here for that.
About Mint Stalk
Mint Stalk is a Digital Marketing & Creative Agency in the UAE, supporting businesses with high quality Social Media Management, Branding, Creative Designs, Arabic Content, Campaigns, PR & more. Mint Stalk Marketing Agency offers both offline and online marketing support, as we understand that both your audience targeting and creative content must be on par, in order to convert customers and build brand loyalty. Our company is split into different departments: as Mint Stalk Social Media Management Agency in the UAE, we handle all social media platforms, offering Instagram Management, Facebook Management, Twitter Management, LinkedIn Management, Tick Tock Management and Snap Chat Management. We design creative posts, write quality Arabic and English captions, cover Instagram stories, on-site events, full community management, (responding to questions and comments from the public), run competitions, increase organic followers and increase page engagement to strengthen your brand. We always include short video content and moving GIFs as part of your social media content, to keep the page engaging and interactive. We work with a number of Social Media Influencers as part of our Influencer Management Services, through collaborations, barter deals and paid posts. Mint Stalk Creative Agency has in-house Videographers for video production, professional Photographers, Graphic Designers, Creative Directors, Arabic content writers and English content writers. The Digital Marketing arm consists of UI/UX Website Developers, Social Media Managers, Google Ads Managers and SEO Specialists, who build targeted campaigns and focus on performance marketing. Mint Stalk also supports a number of well-known multinational brands with Press Releases. As a PR Agency, we write both English and Arabic press releases, prepare the Press Kits and also distribute them for publishing. We work with Timeout Dubai, Forbes Magazine, Khaleej Times, Gulf News, Hotelier Middle East, Lovin Dubai and many other Media Outlets both locally and internationally. Mint Stalk has built numerous brand guidelines and brand strategies for both corporate and lifestyle sectors, including banks and government entities. From storytelling to brand positioning, Mint Stalk can support with all branding and creative requirements. Mint Stalk Marketing Agency caters to a wide range of industries. Some of our corporate clients and government entities include The Ministry of Artificial Intelligence, Sharjah Investment and Development Authority and Messefrankfurt. Some of our consumer and lifestyle brands include Anantara Hotels, St Regis, Americana Group and Jashanmal Retail. We love to support local businesses, so please feel free to reach out to our passionate team!
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