Facebook will drop ban on news pages in Australia

Claiming the Australian government has agreed to amendments in its proposed media law changes, Facebook has announced that it will restore news pages in the region.

Following its removal of news, charity and initially also government pages in Australia, Facebook has announced that it will restore access. Users in Australia will shortly be able to access pages and share news again.

"Facebook has re-friended Australia," Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told BBC News. He added that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had told him the ban would end "in the coming days."

"Going forward, the [Australian] government has clarified we will retain the ability to decide if news appears on Facebook so that we won't automatically be subject to forced negotiation," Facebook's vice president of global news partnerships, Campbell Brown, said. "We have come to an agreement that will allow us to support the publishers we choose to, including small and local publishers."

Fcacebook's ban was in response to proposed legislation that would require firms such as the social media giant, and Google, to pay for certain use of news sites. Reportedly, the new compromise includes an option for the Australian government to make an exception for Facebook.

That would require Facebook to demonstrate that it has made a "significant contribution" to local journalism.

If the proposals progress into law, there will now also be a new mediation period. Facebook, or other tech firms, will have two months to negotiate any particular deal before the government would impose arbitration on the two parties.

Separately, Google has announced a deal where it will pay "significant sums" to News Corp, owner of the Wall Street Journal, and Australian titles such as The Australian and news.com.au.

8 Comments

jibberj 35 comments · 11 Years

About 3 years ago

News Corp owns 70% of print media in Oz, and 100% in my home state. All this is about the government paying back Murdoch for winning them the last election.

prokip 178 comments · 16 Years

jibberj said:

News Corp owns 70% of print media in Oz, and 100% in my home state. All this is about the government paying back Murdoch for winning them the last election.

How flaming ignorant!

Even if this comment is true, the Australian Federal Government's dispute with Fakebook and Giggle, was all about on-line news, NOT print media ... doh! The Fakebook and Giggle gorillas have been pinching (i.e. steeling) quality journalists work, having that news being displayed on their sites like it is theirs and not paying for the stuff.

Hey, why don't you let me go into your garage take your car and drive it around town hanging out the windows like it's mine !! But I think there is a law about that ??

Hey, why don't you let me go into your garage take your car and drive it around town hanging out the windows like it's mine !! But I think there is a law about that ??

StrangeDays 12959 comments · 8 Years

prokip said:

jibberj said:

News Corp owns 70% of print media in Oz, and 100% in my home state. All this is about the government paying back Murdoch for winning them the last election.

How flaming ignorant!

Even if this comment is true, the Australian Federal Government's dispute with Fakebook and Giggle, was all about on-line news, NOT print media ... doh! The Fakebook and Giggle gorillas have been pinching (i.e. steeling) quality journalists work, having that news being displayed on their sites like it is theirs and not paying for the stuff.

Hey, why don't you let me go into your garage take your car and drive it around town hanging out the windows like it's mine !! But I think there is a law about that ??

Er, no. I'm no FB lover but linking to public web content is not "stealing" anything. When you clicked one of these links it opens up the news company's website with their advertising. If news companies don't want their stories linked to, they're free to put up paywalls. The web is open and you can't charge people for linking to public content.

From FB's earlier statement:

"In fact, and as we have made clear to the Australian government for many months, the value exchange between Facebook and publishers runs in favor 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."

sdw2001 17459 comments · 23 Years

jibberj said:

News Corp owns 70% of print media in Oz, and 100% in my home state. All this is about the government paying back Murdoch for winning them the last election.

There you go again. It's not 70%. It's 64.2% in metropolitan areas, according to Wikipedia. Secondly, you're just spouting off a conspiracy theory for which you have no evidence. It all comes down to your silly "right wing government" notion you tried last time.