Less than a week after its shock decision to ban news, Facebook and the Australian government have the shape of an agreement to restore it. What just happened? Facebook has just announced that it will start the process of restoring news to its Australian platform, and allowing Australian publishers’ work to be viewable and shareable … Read more
The Australian legislation is crumby, but the response from Zuckerberg, in contrast to the Google approach, presents all sort of hazards, including to New Zealand, writes Hal Crawford. The widely anticipated yet almost unthinkable happened yesterday when Facebook banned all news links on its social network in Australia. At the same time, Google has been … Read more
Duncan Greive analyses a shocking development in the global pushback against big tech. Subscribe and listen to The Fold via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast provider. At 7.38am today a short email arrived from Facebook News Partnerships. It contained a total of five sentences, the most important reading: “I am writing to confirm that due to … Read more
No Filter, a superb new book chronicling Instagram’s rise, reveals more about the pathology of Mark Zuckerberg than anything else, writes Duncan Greive. As with many of the tech companies that went on to blithely mess with society, at first there was nothing but starry-eyed idealism. Instagram founder Kevin Systrom was an aesthete, moved by … Read more
Facebook has announced a ban on the conspiracy network QAnon from its platforms. What is Q, and why does Mark Zuckerberg want him gone? We explain. What is QAnon? QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theorist group focused around the idea that Satanic cabal is torturing children and attempting to create a new world order. People … Read more
Facebook’s perceived lack of trust might be damaging to news publishers, but the company itself has become ever more interwoven into the fabric of the news business, writes Emily Bell, director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. Mark Zuckerberg and Noam Chomsky are strange bedfellows in this political moment, but both … Read more
The Christchurch Call initially seemed more like vague platitudes than a plan. Might the government’s diplomatic efforts actually result in something concrete emerging? Alex Braae assesses the latest developments. The Christchurch Call was born out of tragedy. Footage of the March 15 attacks on worshippers at two Christchurch mosques was beamed around the world instantly … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Indifference from major players looms over Christchurch call summit, big changes coming for NCEA, and Peters savages Fonterra’s decision to sell Tip-Top. The Prime Minister is in the spotlight at the Christchurch Call summit on stopping extremism spreading on social media in Paris. It comes at an … Read more
Jacinda Ardern will head to Paris next month to co-host a forum devoted to an accord on ‘eliminating terrorist and violent extremist content online’. What could such a pledge look like, and what could it usefully achieve, asks Jordan Carter of InternetNZ. Jacinda Ardern this morning announced that New Zealand and France are working together … Read more
CEO Mark Zuckerberg was silent for weeks following the attacks, yet the world has refused to let this story go. Here is a summary of three extraordinary weeks for Facebook. It’s now three weeks since Christchurch, and those directly impacted are preparing to face the accused in court this morning, still incredibly raw. Haji Daoud … Read more
If Facebook’s announcement that it’ll ban praise and support for white nationalism and separatism sounds familiar, that’s because it is, writes Paul Brislen for RNZ. Nearly two weeks after the terrorist attack in Christchurch was aired live on Facebook, the company has finally responded in public. From next week it will implement a ban on “praise, support … Read more
The product used to broadcast the murder of 50 innocents is one of Facebook’s least popular and least profitable. What makes it so special that it can’t just hit pause? In the days since a terrorist opened fire in Christchurch, in part motivated by his ability to break new ground in very literally weaponising social … Read more
In New Zealand we’re waiting to see if the all-powerful Facebook boss means what he says about ‘moral responsibility’, writes Toby Manhire More than four days have passed since the world’s weakest man launched an assault that took the lives of 50 people at prayer in Christchurch. He did it with a camera stuck to … Read more
A coalition of major New Zealand advertisers is building a coalition to demand change from the tech giants. New Zealand’s biggest advertisers are working both individually and collectively to try and force change from the tech giants in the wake of the Christchurch terror attacks. At midday on Monday the Association of New Zealand Advertisers … Read more
For a desperate and difficult period of at least eight hours, Facebook and Instagram suffered a massive outage. They’ve so far kept a stony silence on the reasons. And wild uninformed speculation loves a vacuum. Here are 10 definitely true theories. 1. Facebook have confirmed on Twitter that they have not gone down because of … Read more
Social media has provided access to more information than ever, but at the same time it’s harder than ever to tell what’s real and what’s fake. InternetNZ policy advisor Nicola Brown looks back at the year Fake News broke the internet. Bad news spreads fast. In 2018 we saw what might be the breaking point of … Read more
The justice minister tells the Spinoff he’s keenly watching the UK-led inquiry into fake news, disinformation and Facebook and backs calls for the company to be held accountable. As global pressure to hold Facebook accountable for its impact on democracy mounts, New Zealand’s justice minister has told the Spinoff he is actively monitoring events and … Read more
Parliaments in the UK, Australia, Canada and Brazil are waking up to the role of the social media giant in their democracies and is demanding Mark Zuckerberg answer questions. Toby Manhire attempts to learn where New Zealand sits on the issue – and is deeply unimpressed with what he finds. An annus horribilis for Mark … Read more
A lawsuit has revealed Facebook inflated its video statistics for years, inspiring the ‘pivot to video’ which made thousands of journalists redundant. Duncan Greive looks at its impact on New Zealand. So Facebook’s been lying again, at least according to a suit filed last week. Days after admitting that its new portal device would eavesdrop … Read more
Being boring is not just an unfortunate side effect of being Mark Zuckerberg, it’s a strategy, and nowhere is that more apparent than in his choice of clothing. In an essay from the freshly published second volume of the The California Review of Images and Mark Zuckerberg (yes, it’s really a thing) New Zealanders Kelly and Anna … Read more
Facebook’s shares have taken a nosedive after something to do with data used by Cambridge Analytica. Confused? Here’s what it means, and what could come next. This piece was originally published on Radio NZ. Cambridge Analytica is a London-based consulting firm. It is under pressure over allegations it uses illegally obtained data and social media manipulation to … Read more
The Mighty Zuck, His Zuckness of Zuckerberg, announced this week that plucky startup Facebook was giving some serious thought to introducing a “dislike” button, for users who didn’t exactly “like” the post they were reading, but felt utterly obliged to click something. Good idea. And why stop there? Here are a bunch of other buttons … Read more