[aneemzic]

I think more importantly, the government realized how badly Facebook could hurt their influence in the Asia Pacific region. Without Australian news on Facebook, people in nearby developing countries would be getting their international news from from other countries (china).

[thaumasiotes]

Do the people in nearby developing countries speak English? Or Chinese?

Which countries are we talking about?

It seems far more likely to me that people in nearby developing countries will get their international news from locals who follow international news for professional reasons, which would be impacted not at all by whether Australian news links can be shown on Facebook.

[aneemzic]

>Do the people in nearby developing countries speak English?

In most pacific island, yes. In places like East Timor English it's not uncommon at all, news is also often shared via relatives who live abroad. Do you really think china doesn't have multiple news outlets written in English to promote their power abroad, just look at the South China morning Post.

>It seems far more likely to me that people in nearby developing countries will get their international news from locals who follow international news for professional reason

I'm confused why you would think that? A lot of these countries have specific phone plans which exclude Facebook data and they like a large amount of people get their news on social media.

Here's a few articles on the very subject [0][1]

[0]https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-19/pacific-media-warns-f...

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/19/facebooks-aust...

[thaumasiotes]

>> It seems far more likely to me that people in nearby developing countries will get their international news from locals who follow international news for professional reasons

> I'm confused why you would think that?

Simple; it's true everywhere. Most people do not care about international news; they do not ever seek it out.

[aneemzic]

Maybe you feel that way because you live in a country with significant independent media and don’t need to rely on international news outlets reporting on news that directly effects you.