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Facebook Australia restricting users from reading and sharing news

At the beginning of the year we discussed the ongoing stalemate between Google and the Australian government over the proposed News Media Bargaining Code which sought to give publishers in the country a greater cut of ad revenue, among other things. Google was not the only big tech company which took umbrage with the Code, and now Facebook Australia is restricting access to news on its platform in the region.

“In response to Australia’s proposed new Media Bargaining law, Facebook will restrict publishers and people in Australia from sharing or viewing Australian and international news content,” writes William Easton, MD of Facebook Australia & New Zealand in a blog post.

“The proposed law fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content. It has left us facing a stark choice: attempt to comply with a law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or stop allowing news content on our services in Australia. With a heavy heart, we are choosing the latter,” he adds.

Much like Google’s argument, Facebook says that news only makes up a fraction of the content that people search for and share on its platform. Therefore the Code now giving publishers a bigger piece of revenue that Facebook originally had to itself does not represent a massive figure in the greater scheme of things and negatively impacts publishers in the long run, according to the company.

“For Facebook, the business gain from news is minimal. News makes up less than 4% of the content people see in their News Feed. Journalism is important to a democratic society, which is why we build dedicated, free tools to support news organisations around the world in innovating their content for online audiences,” adds Easton.

With Facebook Australia and the government still at a loggerheads regarding the Code, it looks like there have already been some casualties following this latest action, as some government agencies and non-profit organisations in the region have seen their Facebook pages become inaccessible or removed altogether.

As we posited at the beginning of the year regarding the implications if Google removed access to its free services in Australia, it looks like neither party wants to blink in this staring contest, but the critical reliance on such services by the public, will likely mean the Australian government will have to acquiesce at some point.

“We hope that in the future the Australian government will recognise the value we already provide and work with us to strengthen, rather than limit, our partnerships with publishers,” Easton passive-aggressively concludes.

[Image – Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash]

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