Facebook Bans sharing and Viewing news in Australia

ABC News | Facebook

As a response to the new regulations in Australia, Facebook has decided to ban news content from its platform in Australia.

The Australian government has proposed a law that would make the tech giants pay for the news content that brings traffic to their platform.

The Australian government has said that the ban threatened Facebook's credibility. 

Facebook pages of all local and global news sites are unavailable to Australia.

Those outside Australia also will not be able to read or access any Australian news published on the platform. 

Australian communication Minister Paul Fletcher said that Facebook needs to think about what the ban means for its reputation.

Microsoft has shown support to the regulation while Google and Facebook have argued that the law does not reflect how the internet works.

Facebook's block comes hours after Google agreed to pay Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for the content from news sites across its media empire.

The Australian government says this law is necessary to "level the playing field" between the Big Techs and the Publishers over the profit.

Facebook on the other hand argues it helped Australian publishers earn AUS-$ 407M last year through referrals but the gain from the news is minimal for them.

Facebook's change has also denied Australian people access to the pages of the many key government agencies.

Other pages for charity, politicians, trade unions, sports groups, and non-news organizations were also affected by the ban. Facebook has said they are working on the problem.
 

Publish : 2021-02-18 08:45:00

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