Facebook to restore news pages in Australia

EPA

Facebook has announced it will restore news content to its users in Australia.

The social media giant has blocked news to Australians since last Thursday in response to a proposed law which would make it and Google pay news publishers for content.

Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said news pages would be restored on Facebook "in the coming days".

Amendments would be made to the law, he added in a statement on Tuesday.

The government has said its legislation aims to set up a "fairer" negotiation process between the tech giants and news companies over the value of news content.

The legislation - seen as a possible test case for regulation globally - has been strongly opposed by Facebook and Google.

But Facebook said on Tuesday that it had been reassured by recent discussions with the government.

"Going forward, the government has clarified we will retain the ability to decide if news appears on Facebook so that we won't automatically be subject to forced negotiation," said Campbell Brown, vice president of news partnerships at Facebook.

"We have come to an agreement that will allow us to support the publishers we choose to, including small and local publishers."

Facebook has its own "showcase" product through which it pays media organisations a fee to display their stories on its platform.

However, Australia's law would have required payment for the sharing and posting of news links on Facebook.

The tech firm had argued this "fundamentally" misunderstood how it used news on its site.

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February 23, 2021 at 04:45PM

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-56165015