Facebook on Tuesday agreed to lift its controversial news ban in Australia after the government said it would change a law that would force the technology giant to pay for media content.
“As a result of these changes, we can now work to boost our investment in public interest journalism, and recover the news for Facebook in the coming days on Facebook,” said Will Easton, managing director of Facebook Australia.
“We are pleased to have been able to reach an agreement with the Australian Government and appreciate the constructive discussions we have had,” Easton added.
The compromise means that Facebook and the other main target of the law – Google – are unlikely to be penalized as long as they reach an agreement with local media companies to pay for news.
The social media giant sparked outrage last week when it issued the news ban after the House of Representatives enforced the News Media Bargaining Code, which would force Facebook and Google to negotiate with media companies producing the content shared on their platforms .
Facebook is vehemently opposed to the proposed law, saying it ignores the “reality” of its relationship with publishers using the service to “share news content”.
Some Australian government and emergency services pages were also accidentally scrapped amid the ban, which has angered.
With Post threads