Facebook said on Tuesday it will restore news pages on its platform in Australia after the government has agreed to some changes in the new law which makes it mandatory for social media to pay for the news content that they display.
Facebook had last week blocked Australian users from sharing and viewing news content on its popular social media platform, drawing criticism from publishers and the government.
But after a series of talks between Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, a concession deal has been struck, with Australian news expected to return to the social media site in coming days.
“Facebook has refriended Australia, and Australian news will be restored to the Facebook platform,” Frydenberg told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.
Frydenberg said Australia had been a “proxy battle for the world” as other jurisdictions engage with tech companies over a range of issues around news and content.
Australia has been the first country to enact a comprehensive law to make social media giants pay for the news content that they carry from newspapers and other media outlets.
Other countries such as Canada and Britain also considering similar legislation and the Australian law provides a possible template.
“Facebook and Google have not hidden the fact that they know that the eyes of the world are on Australia, and that’s why they have sought I think to get a code here that is workable,” Frydenberg said.
Australia will offer four amendments, which include a change to the proposed mandatory arbitration mechanism used when the tech giants cannot reach a deal with publishers over fair payment for displaying news content.
Facebook said it was satisfied with the revisions, which will need to be implemented in legislation currently before the parliament.
“Going forward, the government has clarified we will retain the ability to decide if news appears on Facebook so that we won’t automatically be subject to a forced negotiation,” Facebook Vice President of Global News Partnerships Campbell Brown said in a statement online.
She said the company would continue to invest in news globally but also “resist efforts by media conglomerates to advance regulatory frameworks that do not take account of the true value exchange between publishers and platforms like Facebook.”
The government had up until Monday maintained it would not change the legislation.
The amendments include an additional two-month mediation period before the government-appointed arbitrator intervenes, giving the parties more time to reach a private deal.
It also inserts a rule that an internet company’s existing media deals be taken into account before the rules take effect, a measure that Frydenberg said would encourage internet companies to strike deals with smaller outlets.
The so-called Media Bargaining Code has been designed by the government and competition regulator to address a power imbalance between the social media giants and publishers when negotiating payment for news content used on the tech firms’ sites.
Media companies have argued that they should be compensated for the links that drive audiences, and advertising dollars, to the internet companies’ platforms.
