Facebook continues to block Australien news websites

Facebook Inc. will block the reading and sharing of news content in its news feed in Australia, drawing a line under a proposed Australian law that would oblige <a class="tvreplink" target="_blank" href="https://www.tradingview.com/chart/?symbol=Nasdaq%3AGOOG">Alphabet's company and Google Inc. to pass the Paying the country's news publishers for content. The move, announced in a blog post on Wednesday, represents a divergence in the reactions of big tech giants to demands from news publishers accusing companies of destroying their advertising business.  Australia's treasurer Josh Frydenberg said he had a "constructive conversation" with Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday, adding that talks with the company on the proposed media pay bill would continue. "(Zuckerberg) addressed a few remaining issues with the government's media payments law and we agreed to continue our conversation to try to find a way forward," Frydenberg said in a tweet. The Australian federal government has said it plans to put legislation, which is effectively forcing Google and Facebook to close deals with media companies or set fees for them, to a vote in the coming weeks. Google has also threatened to shut down its search engine in the country to avoid “impracticable” content laws, despite securing deals with publishers in the UK, Germany, France, Brazil and Argentina for its Google News Showcase product. On Wednesday, Google signed a landmark global deal with Rupert Murdochs News Corp (NASDAQ: NWSA), owner of the Wall Street Journal and two-thirds of major Australian city newspapers, to develop a subscription platform and share advertising revenue. Facebook said the proposed legislation "profoundly misunderstands" the relationship between it and publishers, arguing that the newspapers are voluntarily posting their article links on Facebook, which helped Australian publishers raise about AU $ 407 million through redirects in 2020 to earn. Emily Bell, director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School, tweeted Wednesday that the relationship is not as voluntary as it seems, and most publishers feel compelled to be on Facebook due to Facebook's dominance. Long criticized for allowing misinformation to flourish on its platforms, Facebook is now in the strange position of also blocking the news outlets that have provided fact-checking on false content. "Nobody benefits from this decision as Facebook will now be a platform for misinformation that can spread quickly and unbalanced," said a spokesman for Nine, an Australian television broadcaster. "This action proves once again their monopoly position and their unreasonable behavior." As of Wednesday, Australian users will no longer be able to read or share news content in the Facebook news feeds, and Australian news publishers will be prevented from posting or sharing content on Facebook Pages.