Facebook in talks with Australian government after news ban
- by Emilio Sims
- in Money
- — Feb 21, 2021
The conservative coalition leader spoke just 24-hours he branded Facebook's move to block news in the country as "arrogant", warning against "Big Tech companies who think they are bigger than governments and that the rules should not apply to them", as Breitbart News reported.
"It's not OK to unfriend Australia because Australia is very friendly", Morrison said.
A Facebook representative said in an email that the company was "engaging with the Australian Government to outline our ongoing concerns with the proposed law (and would) continue to work with the government on amendments to the law, with the aim of achieving a stable, fair path for both Facebook and publishers".
In order to express dissatisfaction with a legislation in Australia, the Facebook platform has banned Australian users from sharing news. Furthermore, we expect the Australian parliament to pass this law next week.
Google has avoided paying for links inside its main search engine, the tabernacle that generates nearly all its profits, but agreed to pay for the right to carry news in Google News Showcase, a novel product that seems likely to exist nearly entirely as a regulatory sop, albeit one worth $100m (£71m) per year to News Corp.
Facebook's move had an immediate impact on traffic to Australian news sites, according to early data from analytics firm Chartbeat.
Canada's Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault late on Thursday said his country would adopt Australia's approach as it crafts its own legislation in the coming months.
A 3D printed Facebook logo is seen in front of displayed Australia's flag in this illustration photo taken February 18, 2021.
Canadian media organisations past year warned that the country would lose 700 print journalism jobs out of 3,100 in total, if the government did not act.
Hunt said the authorities would use every channel to encourage Australians to get vaccinated, including messages on foreign language broadcaster SBS, but "there is the capacity to do paid advertising (on Facebook) and that element is not on the cards. for now".
In Spain, Google shut down its news website after a 2014 law required it to pay publishers, AP reports. "We called them out", Mr Morrison said. "Is Facebook going to cut ties with Germany, with France?" he asked, saying that at some point Facebook's approach would become "totally unsustainable".
