Facebook lifts block:The U.S. company reached an agreement with the Australian government that stipulates the negotiation with the media for the payment of published content.
Facebook announced that it plans to end the block imposed on February 18 on the publication of news in Australia. The measure will come into force in the next few days thanks to an agreement reached with the Australian government.
The suspension of news publications came in response to a bill that seeks to force platforms to pay for sharing content produced by local media.
The social network explained in a statement that it agreed with the Australian government “a number of changes and safeguards”, which will allow it to continue to invest “in public interest journalism and restore news on Facebook for Australians in the coming days”.
The head of the Treasury office, Josh Frydenmberg, and the Australian Minister for Communications, Paul Fletcher, announced for their part, that the Canberra Executive will introduce new amendments to give “greater clarity to digital platforms and the media” on this controversial bill being debated in Parliament. The amendments will take into account whether the digital platform has made “a significant contribution to the sustainability of the Australian news industry” and provide for a one-month notice prior to the arbitration process.
The bill, passed last week by the House of Representatives and which reached the Senate this week, requires companies to reach an agreement with the media to remunerate them for the creation of news, according to the monetization of the links published on the platform.
