Wall Street Journal dragged India in its combat with Facebook. Now, we all know why and it has nothing to do with India

In the month of August final yr, Rupert Murdoch owned Wall Street Journal had printed successful job article quoting some named and unnamed sources to color an image that the social media large Facebook was managed by BJP in India, regardless of the platform having a evident left-leaning bias. The article didn’t have any substantial proof to again its claims however as is the case with most mainstream newspapers of the West, mere insinuations work as a result of the legacy of the publication supersedes every thing. However, quick ahead to March 2021, and one can perceive why India was dragged by WSJ in its combat with Facebook. And, the explanation? For financial features by leveraging its information corp. trade.Read extra: The WSJ story about “BJP Controlling Facebook” scores excessive on rhetoric and low on factsAccording to an Indian Express report, Facebook has lastly agreed to pay Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp for its journalism content material in Australia. Reported extensively by TFI, the Australian Parliament had not too long ago handed a invoice that mandates firms akin to Google and Facebook, whose main income is promoting, to pay native publishers for information content material.Initially, each Google and Facebook put up a united entrance saying they might not yield to the Australian authorities’s calls for with the previous even threatening to go away the nation and the latter briefly blocking information hyperlinks contained in the nation. However, with the Scott Morrison authorities not budging an inch, each the tech giants needed to circumvent round their unique plans and cede to the calls for of the down below regime.First, it was Google that agreed to pay Rupert Murdoch’s information corp for the journalism information content material and subsequently Facebook was made to comply with the go well with as effectively. Involving India in its combat with Facebook as a way to an finish for Wall Street Journal and by the seems of the latest take care of the Mark Zuckerberg led firm in Australia, Rupert Murdoch has managed to efficiently achieve what he had got down to obtain.Read extra: Facebook kneels earlier than Morrison inside simply days of the digital stand-off with AustraliaIf Facebook had certainly colluded with BJP or for that matter, the Indian authorities, it could not have agreed to pay a shilling to Murdoch. The multiyear deal, introduced on Tuesday, consists of information content material from main Murdoch conservative media shops like The Australian, a nationwide newspaper, and the information web site information.com.au, in addition to one other metropolitan, regional and group publications. Sky News Australia, additionally owned by Murdoch, has prolonged an current settlement with Facebook.Read extra: Morrison’s India card makes Facebook go down on its knees in simply 24 hoursThe attain Murdoch has all through the globe owing to his multibillion newspaper and tv channels helped him foyer laborious for the deal — whose seeds have been sown again in August final yr. Facebook may need performed together with Wall Street Journal’s model of ‘BJP controlling Facebook’ on the time because it pandered to their agenda however now that refined shifting of the goalpost has come again to hang-out the social media large.The Modi authorities continues to be intact in its full glory and would possibly even pressure Facebook to stroll down the identical highway of ‘News bargaining code’ within the nation and it may be a double whammy for the Silicon Valley firm who has already been deceived by Wall Street Journal in Australia by dragging India by means of the mud.