A number of Australian digital publications have replaced their news feeds with a message that apologises to their audiences and includes the hashtag #waitingonzuck for 24 hours, as they attempt to make the social media giant grant them equal rewards for their efforts.
Several small and medium media publications from all around the country are making public their demands for greater fairness in the industry by replacing their news feeds on Facebook with an image that shows that they’re waiting on Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg to finally come to the negotiating table and level the playing field in regards to their earnings from social media.
About a year ago, all social media and other digital platforms such as Google, were forced by a new law legislated by the federal government to enter commercial negotiations with local media outlets. This law was meant to create a decline in the large gap that had been created between social media platforms and the news outlets themselves, however since the introduction of this new law, Facebook has only signed agreements with the larger publications, leaving the smaller publishers in a state of imbalance.
The image that has been posted in place of the news feeds by the publications urges their audiences to reach out the federal government’s representatives to let them know that Facebook is continuing to avoid them and that a future without the smaller community media outlets would be bleak.
Among those who are participating in today’s Facebook news feed strike are independent media outlets Concrete Playground, Star Observer and Australian Jewish News.
