Facebook to Prohibit Sharing of News Content in Australia
February 17 2021 - 3:26PM
Dow Jones News
By Jeff Horwitz
Facebook Inc. said it would restrict publishers and users in
Australia from viewing or sharing news articles, ramping up a
standoff with the government there over a proposal that would force
tech companies to pay newspapers for content.
The Australian proposal, which is now before a parliamentary
committee, could prompt other countries to follow suit in a global
transformation of the relationship between tech companies and
traditional media.
Facebook's move will result in a blackout for content from
Australian publishers on Facebook world-wide as well as the
unavailability of stories from both domestic and international news
content within Australia. Facebook said that news accounts for
"less than 4% of the content people see in their News Feed" but
didn't provide detail on how it had calculated that number.
Facebook, which has been threatening for months that the
proposal could force its hand, said the Australian government
continues to misunderstand the relationship between publishers and
the company's social-media platforms.
"It has left us facing a stark choice: attempt to comply with a
law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or stop
allowing news content on our services in Australia. With a heavy
heart, we are choosing the latter," the company said in a statement
Wednesday from William Easton, Facebook's managing director, for
Australia and New Zealand.
Facebook will seek to block or remove links to news posted to
its platform and establish a system to review news content that
slips through its filters. The company said that it believed that
restricting news on Australian Facebook would cost publishers more
than $300 million U.S. dollars.
Facebook and Alphabet Inc.'s Google have been in lengthy
negotiations with the Australian government. Earlier on Wednesday,
News Corp announced that it has agreed to a multi-year partnership
with Google to provide journalism from its news sites around the
world in return for significant payments from the search giant.
News Corp owns Wall Street Journal parent Dow Jones &
Co.
Write to Jeff Horwitz at Jeff.Horwitz@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 17, 2021 15:11 ET (20:11 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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