Honest Government Ad | News Corp Bargaining Code (Patreon)

Dear Patrons

After a short break, we're back with our first Honest Government Ad for 2021!

I decided to to kick off with this one because just yesterday the Australian Government passed the "News Media Bargaining Code", a new law that fundamentally alters the relationship between Big Media & Big Tech. And one that other Governments around the world are sure to try and emulate (Australian Government: world leaders in shitfuckery).

As usual when it comes to tech laws like this, there's confusion about what the legislation entails. I've seen people arguing over whether Facebook came out on top; or whether Rupert Murdoch won the battle. Which sort of misses the main point... that the legislation is designed to align the interests of Big Media and Big Tech.

So I thought, wouldn't it be nice if our Government were 100% honest about what this new law is designed to do. I hope you enjoy the outcome :)

For more info I highly recommend reading what human/digital rights lawyer Lizzie O'Shea is writing about it. Lizzie shared her ideas with me when I was researching this topic, and she'll be my guest next week on the Podcast.

In other news:

If you're in Australia, you've probably received an email from Patreon informing you that they've introduced AUD payments. This is good news, as it means you can avoid currency conversion fees when supporting us.

I need to get my head around the changes before I switch our page over to AUD. So, for now USD remains the default currency. However, if you're currently on USD and would like to switch over to AUD, you can do so as follows:

1. On Patreon.com, click your avatar in the top right of the screen
2. Click Manage Memberships
3. Find The Juice Media, and click Edit
4. Under currency, choose AUD (other currencies supported include GBP, EUR and CAD)
5. Click Update to save your settings.

As far as I understand, by doing this your current USD pledge will be automatically converted to the equivalent AUD amount: so if you pledged USD5, your pledge will convert to AUD7; if you pledged USD10, it will convert to AUD13, etc.

Importantly, this means that we still receive the same level of support from you, except you'll no longer be charged that extra 4% on currency conversion fees.

I will write you a separate post about this once I have a better understanding of it myself; but I just wanted to let you know that this is an option!

Ok, that's all from me for now. I'll be back next week with the podcast companion to this HGA.

Until then, take care - and thank you for supporting our work. I'm looking forward to another big year of Honest Government Ads and podcasts.

Giordano & team xo