Facebook to restrict sharing or viewing Australian and international news content - ABC News

Facebook will restrict publishers and people in Australia from sharing or viewing Australian and international news content.

Key points:

• The move is in response to proposed laws that would force tech companies to pay for news content
• It would also prevent people overseas from sharing Australian content on the social media site
• The company says "value exchange between Facebook and publishers runs in favour of the publishers"

The announcement comes in response to proposed new laws in Australia that would force tech companies to negotiate with media companies over how much to pay them for news content.

The move would also prevent people overseas from sharing Australian content on the social media site.

Facebook said the law fundamentally misunderstood the relationship between their platform and publishers who use it to share news content.

It said they face the stark choice between attempting to comply with a law, or to stop allowing news content on our services in Australia — and "with a heavy heart" they are choosing the latter.

The move comes a day after Nine and Seven West Media reportedly made multi-million-dollar deals with Google for use of content.

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"We understand many will ask why the platforms may respond differently," the Facebook statement says.

"The answer is because our platforms have fundamentally different relationships with news.

"Google Search is inextricably intertwined with news and publishers do not voluntarily provide their content."

The social media giant said it has explained for months that "the value exchange between Facebook and publishers runs in favour of the publishers — which is the reverse of what the legislation would require the arbitrator to assume".

"Last year Facebook generated approximately 5.1 billion free referrals to Australian publishers worth an estimated AU$407 million."

More to come.

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2021-02-17 19:07:00Z
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