This is like if politicians were shocked that raising cigarette taxes resulted in a drop in cigarette sales. FB now has an explicit monetary incentive NOT to allow news in AU and it is a direct result of government actions.
I wouldn't bet that banning news will reduce the noise. Instead I think it will create a vacuum for even worse noise to fill.
Just look at Twitter.
So yea, it may actually make it better. FB considers "engagement" as all-important. But engagement occurs most frequently when someone sends out a controversial news article. It devalues the service and makes it a less enjoyable experience.
I follow ~60 people on FB, most of whom I know IRL. I'm pretty ruthless in unfollowing those that are noisy with memes or other junky stuff.
I'm also conservative with the groups and pages I subscribe to.
You have the controls to curate what goes into your Facebook feed. So the, "So much better," remarks feels like someone flailing around fecklessly when they actually have the power.
Anecdotally I've noticed very little change in my feed since the change here in the Antipodes.
they go back and forth, at their convenience, on whether or not taxing things causes less of the thing to be produced.
It causes less to be consumed and this is part of New Zealand’s strategy to make the country (tobacco) smoke free. The numbers shown below are a little misleading as the black market increases as the tax rises, as the link notes.
‘The collective impact of the initiatives that make up New Zealand’s tobacco control programme, including tobacco excise tax, is having the desired impact on smoking rates which are trending down. Among Māori, daily smoking prevalence fell from 39.2 percent to 37.7 percent (1.5 percent) between 2006/7 and 2011/12, but during the period of annual tobacco excise increases they fell from 37.7 percent to 31.2 percent in 2017/18 (6.5 percent) –a substantial acceleration in the decrease in prevalence.’
https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/informatio...
obviously. and yet politicians forget that when they're not talking about sin taxes.