The social networking site Facebook will now use a combination of technologies to block news content from Australian publishers and will also work on a setup that will review the removed content later in detail. According to the proposed Australian law, Facebook will block news content from being read and shared in its news feed in the Australian region.
From the 18th of February, News publishers were unable to post news articles or access their Facebook news pages from anywhere in the World. However, according to the proposed law both, Google & Facebook should pay news publications for the content or link they use on their platforms.
Google has announced that they will have to shut down their search engine in the country to avoid “unworkable” law, although they have secured deals with publishers in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Brazil, and Argentina for its Google News Showcase. The revenue generated by the news is less than 4 percent for Facebook, last year the company generated approximately 5 billion free referrals to Australian publishers.
Restriction for Publishers & Audience
- Australian Publishers will be restricted from posting and sharing content on their Facebook page.
- According to Facebook, admins will still be able to access other features from their Facebook page.
- Facebook will continue to provide standard features to publishers like data tools, page insights, and Crowd-Tangle.
- International publishers will be able to publish news content on their Facebook page, but the published posts and links will not be accessible by the Australian audience.
- Australian audience will not be able to view or share Australian or International news content on their Facebook page.
- The international audience cannot view or share news content from Australian news pages on Facebook.
This morning, I had a constructive discussion with Mark Zuckerberg from #Facebook.
He raised a few remaining issues with the Government’s news media bargaining code and we agreed to continue our conversation to try to find a pathway forward.
— Josh Frydenberg (@JoshFrydenberg) February 17, 2021
The Australian Federal Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg said in a tweet “This morning, I had a constructive discussion with Mark Zukerberg. He raised a few remaining issues with the government news media bargaining code and we agreed to continue our conversation to try to find a pathway forward.”
