19:55 PST 17/07/2021
by
Abid Rahman
The social media giant made the decision due to the proposed laws in the country to make Big Tech pay for journalism.
Facebook has stopped Australian users from viewing or sharing news links on its platform in response to proposed new laws in the country that will force technology giants to pay for journalism.
The new rules for Australian Facebook users mean that they cannot share Australian or international news and that international users outside Australia cannot share Australian news either.
“The proposed law misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content.” Said William Easton, local managing director of Facebook, and New Zealand, in a report on the company’s website.
“It presented us with a narrow choice: trying to comply with a law that ignores the reality of this relationship, or to allow news content on our services in Australia. With a heavy heart, we choose the latter,” he said. Easton added.
The company’s decision to take the core option and block access to and share of news has already led to a storm of criticism from the emergency services in Australia who rely on the social media platform to share important information about wildfires, floods, extremes again and COVID-19 to transfer. including local interest and public safety issues.
Australian children’s hospitals, neighborhood watch organizations, charities and non-governmental organizations have already seen jobs removed Sydney Morning Herald Thursday, local time, reported.
The Australian government has slammed Facebook for a local ban on reading and sharing news. “Facebook was wrong. Facebook’s actions were unnecessary, it was heavy-handed and it would damage its reputation here in Australia,” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told a Canberra press conference today.
“Their decision to block Australians’ access to government websites – whether it be through pandemic support, mental health, emergency services, the Bureau of Meteorology – was completely unrelated to the media code yet to go through the Senate,” Frydenberg added. .
Facebook’s one-sided response to the proposed legislation covering digital news in Australia stands in stark contrast to Google, which is now in negotiations after an initial uncompromising position and threats to withdraw its services from the country, and some transactions with local media companies have closed, Frydenberg said.
Google already has an agreement with Seven West Media (Seven Network, The Western Australian newspaper) and is close to commercial agreements with Nine Entertainment (Nine Network, Nine Radio, and major newspapers) The age and Sydney Morning Herald) and national broadcaster ABC.
Google on Wednesday signed a major deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp to pay for journalism on its global news sites, including the company’s Australian assets, such as the major dailies The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun as well as its television properties Foxtel and Sky News Australia.