At the beginning of this month exactly on the 18th of Feb, the government of Australia said that Facebook social media should pay for news content posted on its site.
This bargaining rule will affect big tech social media companies such as Facebook and Google thus forcing them into sharing the revenue they make from published content on their sites.
This led to Facebook’s quick and rash actions to block all news agencies and pages on its platform from Australia. This was done to inform the Australian government and any other government who would want to follow in such steps that the giant social media platform won’t comply with such.
Facebook’s actions last week restricted publishers or news outlets and Facebook users in Australia from sharing, posting, or finding news content on its platform.
Reason Why is Facebook decided to Lift the Ban?
Australian treasurer, Josh Frydenberg reportedly said the rule has been edited to fit both sides of the rod. The changes made were also to narrow down and specify how the new rule will operate and affect social media and news media companies.
The changes made include that the government may not apply the rule to Facebook given they can prove they’ve signed enough payment deals with news media companies. Also, social media companies including Facebook would be given two months to comply with the new system.
William Easton, managing director of Facebook Australia and New Zealand in his statement explained that the company was satisfied with the changes made to the rule. Further describing that with this amendment, Facebook can acknowledge just how important publishers are.
What will Happens When the New Rule Is implemented by the Australian Government?
If the new rule is implemented, Facebook would be able to pull news from Australia as usual. The Australian government agreed that Facebook is granted the power to decide the kind of news that appears on its platform.
This way they’d be able to control things from their side so they won’t be issues of coerced negotiations with media outlets. Facebook is now working on negotiations with a lot of huge media companies in Australia including the likes of Nine entertainment and Seven West Media.
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