Over the Easter break, Taurus Founder Sharon Williams was invited to share her insights on the withdrawal of paid news from Facebook by Eidtor David Swan from The Sydney Morning Herald.
February 17, 2021 began a week that still lives in infamy for many Australian news publishers. In a stand-off with the government over the news media bargaining code, Facebook suddenly banned Australian media content on its platform.
Sharon said, “Facebook has already faded into irrelevance other than for school reunions and Marketplace,” she says. “It really isn’t a mainstream social media channel any more. I think it will fade away, and I also think users are sceptical of it … The solution is don’t invest in Facebook. It’s a dying, unfashionable platform with a growing brand for fake news. It’s almost returning to its roots as a high school networking app, and I actually find the content quite frightening and misleading.”
Her comments appeared in a 2-page print spread and online feature in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times and WA today . Click here to read the article online.