Here’s something you don’t see every day. One of the world’s leading social media companies just cut off news from an entire nation. At first glance it sounds like Facebook run amok but after looking at it I’m not so sure the company doesn’t have a point. Here’s what’s going on. Australia is considering a law aimed at forcing Google and Facebook to pay Australian news sites for stories.... Under the Australian law, Facebook and Google would be required to negotiate “in good faith” with Australian news sites for licenses to link to their content—something they currently do for free. Nondiscrimination rules would require Google and Facebook to treat sites the same whether they have to pay a site for links or not. If negotiations broke down, the disputes would be settled by baseball-style arbitration, where each side puts an offer on the table and a neutral party decides which offer is more reasonable. In short, Facebook and Google will be required to pay Australian news sites when they send them traffic—and the Internet titans are not allowed to stop linking to Australian news sites to avoid paying.Facebook bans Australian users from reading or sharing news https://t.co/gHdMhNBDxg | Every nation in the world should follow Australia's lead and not just with Facebook. Google and Twitter should have to pay as well. Make them change their business model or go out of business.
— John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) February 18, 2021
Facebook has announced it will ban Australian users from reading or sharing news on its platform, with @theweeklytimes among the many media outlets affected.https://t.co/2thVPQywrC
— The Weekly Times (@theweeklytimes) February 17, 2021
Facebook will ban Australian users from reading or sharing news on its platform. This is why https://t.co/KKt1mxKDqc
— Herald Sun (@theheraldsun) February 17, 2021
