Facebook to restore news pages in Australia 'in coming days' after deal with govt on law

Facebook on February 23 announced that it will lift a contentious ban and restore news content to its users in Australia. According to BBC, the social media platform had blocked news to Australians since Thursday in response to a proposed law that would make it and Google pay news publishers for content. However, on Tuesday, after the government agreed to amend a world-first media law fiercely opposed by the tech giant, Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said that the news pages would be restored on Facebook “in the coming days”. 

In a statement, Frydenberg said that amendments would be made to the law. He indicated that a compromise between Facebook and the Australian government has been reached on key aspects of a law that would force global tech companies to pay news companies for content that appears on their platforms. In a separate statement, Facebook also said that it had been reassured by recent discussions with the government. 

READ: Australian Charities Slam Facebook, Say Blocking Access To News Can Lead To Misinformation

Campbell Brown, vice president of news partnership at Facebook, said that going forward, the Australian government has clarified that the company will retain the ability to decide if news appears on Facebook so that they won’t automatically be subject to force negotiations. Brown said that both the parties have come to an agreement that will allow the firm to support the publishers they choose to, including small and local publishers. It is worth noting that Facebook has its own “showcase” product through which it pays media organisations a fee to display their stories on its platform. 

READ: Aus PM Welcomes Facebook 'back To Negotiating Table'

Facebook bars access to key information 

However, Australia’s law would require payment for the sharing and posting of news links on Facebook. The tech giant, on the other hand, had argued that this “fundamentally” misunderstood how it used news on its site. Last week, Facebook had even banned 100 non-news sites in Australia, including government health and emergency pages. 

Facebook on February 18, began preventing Australian news sites from posting while also stopping Australian users from sharing or viewing content from news outlets. Additionally, the Facebook ban also temporarily put the country at a standstill as users were barred access to pages of the Meteorology Bureau, state health departments, unions, several political leaders, hospitals and charities for several hours. Pages of state health departments- SA Health and Queensland Health- were also banned from posting their updates on the COVID-19 vaccination drive. The ban also hit emergency services. The Western Australian Department of Fire and Emergency Services’ page was stripped of content. 

READ: Why Did Facebook Ban Australian News? Facebook Ban Explained

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