Australian Government Says Facebook News Ban will be Lifted Soon
The government decided to bring amendments to the proposed news media bargaining code
When Facebook suddenly decided to ban Australian Facebook news from the feed, people were shocked and distressed. Thankfully, the tech giant has decided to change things again and soon, we will see Facebook news in our feeds again. Here is what changed and how.
Lifting the Facebook News Ban
Facebook decided that they will display Australian Facebook news in our feed like before after it held talks with the Australia government. The government has decided to bring further amendments to the proposed news media bargaining code. On Tuesday, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said, “Facebook has advised the Government that it intends to restore Australian news pages in the coming days.”
The amendments to the law are friendly to Facebook, but they do not water down the code too much. The code will probably still force the tech companies like Facebook to negotiate with Australian media publishers if the two parties do not come to their own agreements.
Some of the changes that motivated Facebook to lift the Facebook news ban were providing notice when the government changes what parts of tech giants will be included in the code. It also includes giving a two-month grace period for negotiations prior to the implementation of forced arbitration.
The representatives of Facebook also talked about the decision to make Facebook news like before. The MD of Facebook Australia and New Zealand, Will Easton, said this via a blog post “We’re pleased that we’ve been able to reach an agreement with the Australian government and appreciate the constructive discussions we’ve had with Treasurer Frydenberg and Minister Fletcher over the past week.”
He added, “We have consistently supported a framework that would encourage innovation and collaboration between online platforms and publishers. After further discussions, we are satisfied that the Australian government has agreed to a number of changes and guarantees that address our core concerns about allowing commercial deals that recognize the value our platform provides to publishers relative to the value we receive from them. As a result of these changes, we can now work to further our investment in public interest journalism and restore news on Facebook for Australians in the coming days.”
As the news code is not passed yet, the changes might be easier to implement. In essence, this change of heart Facebook had about the Facebook news ban is good for the general public and social media addicts who constantly share Facebook news.
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