Facebook has just announced a ban

on certain news content - in response to the legislation the government is putting in place forcing them to pay for this.

Pay for something you use? It sounds fair doesn't it - except that this is not quite what is happening. 

What is really happening is something quite different. The big media companies in Downunder have demanded, and then succeeded in getting, more.  For  years they have been able to advertise themselves on the internet at almost no cost to themselves. It has been paid for by advertising, subscriptions, the work of  Google and Facebook and popular sites like Twitter, Instagram, Reddit and more. It has not been paid for by the media companies.

The media companies have simply made their material available - up to a point. In reality a lot of what goes up is just a teaser, a tiny fraction of the "story". Click on the link and you get a page about a subscription. The media has put all this up at almost no cost to themselves. 

The media in fact are rather like squatters. They have moved into houses owned by Google and others. They don't pay rent and now they are demanding that the landlord pays the taxes and the utility bills. These squatters are also damaging the property and then demanding the landlord does the repairs at no cost to the squatters.

I never thought I would agree with someone like Zuckerberg. I most certainly don't think I would like him if I met him. Thankfully it is extremely unlikely that I ever will. Here though he has a point.  This is not the way the internet works - or should work.

What will now happen is that more people will depend on the appallingly low quality of  the "free" news services in this country - if they bother at all. 

But - it is easier to control the ignorant.