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In retaliation for Facebook which blocks news content in order to protest against a bill supported by the government, the Australian authorities for their part decided on Sunday to do without the social network in their vaccination campaign against Covid-19.
The Australian Department of Health bans Facebook from its vaccination campaign device. Health Minister Greg Hunt announced Sunday, February 21, that his ministry will continue to fund this advertising campaign, but not on Facebook. A retaliatory measure taken against the social network which blocks news content in order to protest against a bill supported by the government.
This blockage comes at the time of the launch of the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 in Australia in which the government has invested some 16.5 million euros in order to promote it to the population and thus attempt to counter the conspiracy theories of anti-vaccine.
Australia in conflict with Facebook
“All our funds will be used”, assured Greg Hunt, specifying, however, that his ministry would continue to publish information on this social network but would no longer use it to promote it.
Australia is in dispute with Facebook over a bill that aims to force the tech giants to pay the media for the recovery of their content.
The American giant is firmly opposed to it and on Thursday, in retaliation, it blocked news content on its network.
Talks
Several official rescue service pages were temporarily affected, sparking an outcry.
This bill is due to be submitted to Parliament this week. However, Facebook is reportedly still in talks with the country’s news groups and the government to try to find a solution.
This spectacular action by the American giant contrasts with the attitude of Google, which has concluded agreements with press groups, foremost among which Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and the Guardian.
With AFP
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