Facebook's decision to ban users in Australia from sharing news caused a stir around the world. The situation continues to evolve. According to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the world's largest social network is back at the negotiating table.
Facebook's abruptly enforced decision to ban Australians from sharing news on social media and remove the pages of local and foreign news agencies along the way led to the deletion of several accounts of the country's government and medical authorities, which caused serious discontent. Now it has become known that Facebook is ready to again discuss the scheme of work in Australia, where the government is trying to force the company to pay royalties to local publications for publishing links to their materials.
“The company has previously made friends with us again,” said Mr. Morrison at a news conference in Sydney. " I'm glad Facebook is back at the negotiating table." Australian Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg confirmed yesterday that he had spoken with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and announced that further talks are expected over the weekend.
The standoff is fueled by Australia's desire to pass legislation to force Facebook and Google to do business with the country's news outlets or deal with fines. The draft law has already been approved by the lower house of parliament and is expected to be passed by the Senate within the next week. Its endorsement could set a global precedent as countries like Canada express interest in introducing similar measures.
Facebook previously publicly said it would not change its stance on the proposed law requiring social media platforms to pay for links to news content. But due to the overnight ban on the publication of links to local news outlets, introduced to all users of the social network from Australia, a flurry of criticism from the governments of different countries fell on it. Apparently, this fact prompted Facebook to try again to negotiate with the country's authorities.
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