In a surprising move, media company, CNN disables their Facebook page amid the new Australian High Court order that happened earlier in the month. The company stated that they had no choice and that their hand was forced due to the new legislation.

Earlier in the month, Australian High Court ruled that media companies are to be held liable for the comment that are under their posts. More specifically, they are responsible for the derogatory and defamatory comments that users leave under their posts. While the court ruling happened earlier in the month, approximately the 8th of September, we are just seeing the effects of the ruling now. While companies have the ability the disable comments, this doesn’t promote the ability to engage with your audience.

The discussion started when a young 17 year old Dylan Voller was jailed and put into a youth correctional facility. The teen was put all over the media and this also included how the teen was treated. Pictures of him strapped to a chair with a bag over his head created an outrage that gained more news coverage. Voller ended up suing multiple Australian news companies for the vulgar comments that were left under Facebook posts due to the fact that he was arrested rather than the comments about him being mistreated.

However, media companies are not the only victims of the High Court’s judgment. According to legal experts, not only can news outlets be held liable for their readers’ defamatory comments, but any social media user in Australia can be held liable for comments on their posts if they encourage other users to engage with their content.

https://itif.org/publications/2021/09/16/australian-high-court-ruling-threatens-social-media-and-online-news

Following the release of Disney’s latest addition, Shang-Chi, the company announced that five, out of their next 6, upcoming films will follow the, minimum, 45-day window allocated for theaters. The announcement came to domestic theaters on Friday with headlines following shortly afterwards.

Five of their next six titles, including Marvel’s “Eternals,” all of which are set to open during the rest of 2021, will not reach Disney+ or Hulu until  at least 45 days after their theatrical release.

https://www.indiewire.com/2021/09/shang-chi-disney-gives-robust-theatrical-window-to-eternals-1234663776/

Due to the popularity and performance of Disney’s “Shang-chi”, the company believes that the following movies should follow a similar pattern if they are to hit box office numbers similar to that of Shang-Chi. Over premiere weekend Shang-Chi hit over 241 million dollars world wide. There is no set release date for when the film is supposed to debut on the popular streaming service. Some are speculating that it might get delayed and subscribers to the service are going to be disappointed, however, if this 45 day window hold true then the critically acclaimed film will be available October 18th, 2021.

The news isn’t just for Marvel movies, Disney also announced that the film Encanto will also follow a pattern of appearing in theaters and then premiering later on Disney+. Fans will not have to wait as long, as Disney has stated that the wait would only be 30 days instead of 45 days.

This is important because this all stems from when Black Widow premiered both in theaters, and on Disney+ on launch day and the movie did not preform as Disney was expecting. With streaming services getting more and more popular, fans are enthusiastic when they have the ability to watch new release movies from the comfort of their own home. Also with the COVID-19 pandemic still going on, a large group of people still feel that they would rather stay home and wait rather than go to the theater and risk being compromised. While this 45 day deal may increase box office numbers, there is still going to be a big chunk of people who will wait for it to be stream-able.

Brueggemann, T. (2021, September 10). The ‘Shang-Chi’ EFFECT: ‘Eternals’ and 4 Other Disney films will have Minimum 45-DAY Window, ‘Encanto’ with 30. IndieWire. Retrieved September 16, 2021, from https://www.indiewire.com/2021/09/shang-chi-disney-gives-robust-theatrical-window-to-eternals-1234663776/.