At war with Australia, Facebook blocks news on its platform

Facebook is stuck in its war with Australia Yes announced this Wednesday February 17 that restrict the circulation of news content in the country, refusing to give in to a regulatory pressure which would force the social giant to share revenues with the media.

“The bill basically misunderstand the relationship between our platform and the media that use it to share news content“said the Facebook manager for Australia and New Zealand, William Easton.

Australia set to pass legislation that would force digital businesses to pay for news content, something that would set a global precedent, the agency reported AFP. According to Facebook and Google, the measure would destroy the functioning of the Internet.

Life without Google: Australia faces the unimaginable

“He left us before a difficult choice: try to meet a law that ignores the realities of this relationship, The stop allowing informative content on our services in Australia. With a heavy heart, we choose the latter, ”Easton said.

The Facebook’s measurement contrasts with Google’s, who in recent days has agreements negotiated with media groups, including News Corp. of Rupert murdoch, in response to regulatory pressure. Google agreed to do “large payments“A News Corp for the content, the two companies said in a statement Wednesday.

Changes to sharing and viewing news on Facebook in Australia https://t.co/ePpPWE65Ns

– Facebook press room (@fbnewsroom) February 17, 2021

Earlier this week, Australian officials claimed that the two US tech giants were on the verge of making deals with major Australian media outlets for pay for the news in order to solve a confrontation which is followed closely in the world.

The companies had threatened to partially withdraw services from the country if the regulations were passed, causing a war with Canberra.

A first step: why Google and Facebook should pay for journalistic content

According to Easton, Facebook is trying to convince to the Australian authorities that “the The exchange of values ​​between Facebook and publishers is in favor of publishers“Y generates hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for media organizations.

“We have a long history of working to achieve standards that foster innovation and collaboration between digital platforms and news agencies,” Easton said. “Unfortunately, this legislation doesn’t do that. Instead, it seeks to penalize Facebook for content that it hasn’t taken or requested,” he said.

For Australian publishers this means:

• They cannot share or post content on Facebook Pages.
• Admins will still be able to access other features from their Facebook page, including Page Statistics and Creator Studio.
• We will continue to provide access to all other standard Facebook services, including Data Tools and CrowdTangle

For international publishers, this means:

• They can continue to post news content on Facebook, but the Australian public cannot see or share any links or posts.

For our Australian community, this means:

• They may not post or share Australian or international news content on Facebook or content from Australian and international news pages.

For our international community, this means:

• They may not post or share Australian news content on Facebook or content from Australian news pages.

EuDrMC