In response to proposed laws, the social media giant has restricted Australians from sharing or viewing all news on its platform.
Facebook has announced that it will, from today, “restrict publishers and people in Australia from sharing or viewing Australian and international news content” as a result of the Australian Government’s Media Bargaining Code. Although the Code is still due to be voted on in parliament, the news ban in the country is already under effect, with Australians waking up today to messages from the social media giant explaining the changes. Australia’s Media Bargaining Code proposed that tech giants such as Facebook and Google pay local media publications when linking to their content, in the hope that the revenue is shared more fairly between media sources. Naturally, both Facebook and Google disagree with this proposal, variously claiming that it misses the point. Facebook spokesperson, William Easton, claims the law “fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content”.
