[hestefisk]

Am I the only one who finds it hypocritical that the Liberal government is ok with Murdoch owning pretty much the entire Australian free press; yet they are against monopolisation of search and basic http-based news distribution (ie simple web scraping). The reason people read news online is because Aussie news papers are generally such racist garbage and their web sites are either paywalled or stuffed with ads.

Sorry I don’t meant to come across as contrarian, but as a European and now Aussie citizen, the quality of reporting is really horrendous. This type of law doesn’t seem like anything designed to save the future of free, independent journalism, but simply the old boys club of the liberal party handing out free money to their mates in Newscorp.

Not that the alternative (surveillance capitalism is much better though, but at least it doesn’t impose contradictory logic onto the basic infrastructure of the Internet (text and http).

[op03]

Contradictory logic pfft.

Have you checked your families google app/news feed or whatever they are calling that thing these days. Its like Meghan Markle is the most important person in the world.

I mean initially it was fun to rib my Dad about why he is getting so many Meghan Markle updates. But now I am just scared to even look at phones in the family, given the amount of addictive garbage that is being pumped into them non stop.

[MattGaiser]

Royals have been a favourite topic in the news since long before search engines existed.

The algo is just picking up on the same trends tabloids did. Tons of people want to read that stuff.

[hi41]

My family valued education and I thought it was true for everyone. I didn’t think people read the cheap magazines about celebrities in the checkout aisle in supermarkets. I thought everyone read Dostoyevsky. Haha. Since such interest in garbage seems to exist in so many cultures, do you think there is a evolutionary benefit that comes from it?

[zeofig]

Yeah I'm not a fan of the law either. Google's response was also irritating: plastering ads for their video (against the new law) on every search made from Australia.

[dannyw]

You'd rather want Google search to just disappear someday?

[hestefisk]

No. I would like to have a) a free press that doesn’t sell papers almost solely by denying climate science (google Craig Kelly please - pun intended) and b) increased competition in search.

[zeofig]

Is that in any way what I said? But yes.