Facebook lifted its ban on exchanging messages in Australia after the government changed legislative proposals that would require social media companies to pay news publishers to share or use content on their platforms. Robert Cianflone / Getty Images Hide caption
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Robert Cianflone / Getty Images
Facebook lifted its ban on exchanging messages in Australia after the government changed legislative proposals that would require social media companies to pay news publishers to share or use content on their platforms.
Robert Cianflone / Getty Images
Facebook is set to restore news pages in Australia after the government agreed to change a proposed law that would force tech companies to pay publishers for news content.
The new law would force Google and Facebook to pay Australian news publishers for items agreed by third parties if they hadn’t been able to negotiate payout agreements with local publishers themselves.
Google agreed to obey the law after signing a deal with the country’s largest publishers. Facebook protested and ripped news content from its website in Australia last Thursday.
The Australian government gave in to pressure and approved changes to some provisions in their new media code.
Campbell Brown, Facebook’s vice president of news, said in a statement: “After further discussion, we are pleased that the Australian government has approved a number of changes and warranties that address our core concerns about enabling commercial deals that enhance the value of ours Recognize the platform. ” to publishers in terms of the value we get from them. “
The Australian government said it would add an amendment that “must take into account whether a digital platform has made a significant contribution to the sustainability of the Australian news industry by reaching commercial agreements with news media companies”.
Third party arbitration will only be used as a “last resort” after a period of “good faith” mediation.
Both Google and Facebook are among the financial backers of NPR.
