Facebook agreed to scrap its ban on Australian news and publishers within days after a final vote on the legislation. Facebook made this announcement less than a week after it first pulled all news content from Aussies’ feeds. Australia and the tech giants have been seen in a stand-off over the legislation of online platforms paying for using or posting the content on their platforms and it is widely seen as setting a global precedent. Other countries including Canada and Britain have also made their mind to taking some sort of similar action.
Facebook was not in favor of such legislation since day one and even it was seen protesting against the laws. The social media giant wiped all Australian news from every user’s feeds early last Thursday morning in between a worsening stoush between the Government, tech giants, and publishers. However, it wasn’t only news publishers who caught up in the sweeping ban but it also included the Facebook profiles of unions, governments, health departments, emergency services, and weather bureaus that had their pages emptied. Users around the world were also unable to share or view any kind of Australian news articles. Facebook did this with the aim to jolt the global news industry. The global news industry has already seen its business model upended by the titans of the technological revolution.
The ban reversal stands for the situation where news publishers will be able to share their articles to Facebook again. "Facebook has befriended Australia, and Australian news will be restored to the Facebook platform," said Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on Tuesday afternoon after a final vote in the Australian Senate. “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,” Easton said. “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.”
Both tech giants Google and Facebook were seen campaigning against the laws but Google last week only inked deals with topmost Australian outlets including a global deal with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. "There's no reason Facebook can't do and achieve what Google already has," Birmingham added. Lobby group DIGI, which represents Facebook, Google, and other online platforms like Twitter Inc, meanwhile responded in a positive manner and said that its members had agreed to adopt an industry-wide code of practice so as to reduce the spreading of misinformation online.
The ban reversal is a result of negotiations held between Facebook and the Federal Government over the Media Bargaining code. Media Bargaining Code aimed at pushing tech giants like Google and Facebook to pay publishers for news content. A number of amendments have been made to the code following the negotiations held on 23rd February, 21. Such amendments include support for regional and small publishers in securing deals with digital platforms. However, they also commit to various measures including identifying and stopping unidentified accounts, or bots, disseminating content; informing users of the origins of content, and publishing an annual transparency report under the voluntary code.
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