Facebook has announced that it will lift the ban on publishing content from Australian publishers to users in Australia. This is the result of the talks between the Internet giant and the country’s authorities, which have been going on for several days.
Facebook withdraws its blockade in Australia
Since last week, Facebook users in Australia have been blocked from accessing articles from Australian news portals on the platform. As we wrote on Thursday, when they go to their Facebook pages, they see no entries, only a blank white screen.
This is obviously the result of the war that Australia has been waging for some time with internet giants. The local government wants to force Facebook to pay local publishers for content from news portals shared on the pages of the world’s largest social network. Mark Zuckerberg’s platform claims that “the rules seek to punish Facebook for posting content it did not ask for.”
In response to the adoption of the legislation by the House of Representatives (Australian lower house), Facebook imposed a blockade. It was introduced quite unexpectedly at night from Wednesday to Thursday, but the dish was only a few days old. As Josh Frydenberg from the Australian government informed, Facebook will soon lift the ban. After several days of talks between the Australian authorities and Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the ban would be withdrawn in the coming days.
The social media giant agreed to the compromise. Frydenberg even stated that “Facebook has become friends with Australia again.” The government proposed introducing four amendments to alleviate the previously proposed provisions.
Facebook will be able to decide whether or not certain content will appear on the platform, so that it will not be forced to pay for unsolicited messages. According to the company, this will support selected small and local publishers. There will also be a two-month period during which the social platform will be able to agree with a given publisher. Moreover, the government will not be able to force the giants to pay if they make a “significant contribution” to local journalism.
Google also loudly protested against the new regulations some time ago. The company even threatened to withdraw its search engine from Australia, but eventually got along with local publishers.
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