So you're telling me that the article about Facebook blocking 404 stories about Facebook blocking... is being blocked by a subscribe wall. Sometime, irony abounds.
So you're telling me that the article about Facebook blocking 404 stories about Facebook blocking... is being blocked by a subscribe wall. Sometime, irony abounds.
I don't think requiring a (free) subscription to access a site's own content is quite the same as a platform blocking another site's content under false pretenses
I don't think requiring a (free) subscription to access a site's own content is quite the same as a platform blocking another site's content under false pretenses
404Media are really good ethical investigative journalists and deserve every bit of the support they get. I get the bemusement at the similarity, but don’t slam on one of our few uncompromised...
404Media are really good ethical investigative journalists and deserve every bit of the support they get.
I get the bemusement at the similarity, but don’t slam on one of our few uncompromised news sources just because they’re trying to make a publication using a sustainable old-fashioned model. Those guys are solid.
I'm always curious about how smaller publishers navigate social media, so this part near the end stood out to me. I also didn't realize British tabloids were that popular on Facebook.
I'm always curious about how smaller publishers navigate social media, so this part near the end stood out to me. I also didn't realize British tabloids were that popular on Facebook.
The silver lining here is that Facebook was already increasingly a waste of our time. The only reason we’re able to share our stories via our official Facebook page is that we’ve fully automated that process, because it is not actually worth our time to post our stories there organically. Since before we started 404 Media, we knew there was very little chance that Facebook would help us reach people, grow our audience, and make the case that people should support our journalism, so in a way we lost nothing because there’s nothing to lose.
On the other hand, that perspective is based on us having already accepted Facebook’s rejection of our journalism years ago. It’s not as if people don’t get any news on Facebook. According to Pew, about a third of adults in the U.S. get news from Facebook, but according to media monitoring tool Newswhip, the top 10 publishers on Facebook are British tabloids, People, Fox News, CNN, and BBC. Smaller publishers, especially publishers who are trying to report on some of the biggest problems that are plaguing Facebook, are punished for pointing out that those problems involve adult content, which disincentivizes that reporting and allows those problems to fester.
Article is blocked by a subscribe-wall - here is a link to an archived mirror of the article.
So you're telling me that the article about Facebook blocking 404 stories about Facebook blocking... is being blocked by a subscribe wall. Sometime, irony abounds.
I don't think requiring a (free) subscription to access a site's own content is quite the same as a platform blocking another site's content under false pretenses
It is certainly a 'lesser evil' so to speak.
I still don't want to create an account though.
I didn't say it was the same, at all. But it is funny to have it happen to this specific article.
404Media are really good ethical investigative journalists and deserve every bit of the support they get.
I get the bemusement at the similarity, but don’t slam on one of our few uncompromised news sources just because they’re trying to make a publication using a sustainable old-fashioned model. Those guys are solid.
It feels, somehow, quite thematic of our current times.
I'm always curious about how smaller publishers navigate social media, so this part near the end stood out to me. I also didn't realize British tabloids were that popular on Facebook.