After days of negotiations with Facebook, the government under Prime Minister Scott Morrison has agreed to make changes to a planned media law, the news agency AAP reported.
"These changes will provide digital platforms and news media with greater clarity on how the law should be applied and strengthen the framework for ensuring that businesses in the news media sector are fairly remunerated," it added. Facebook welcomed the agreement in a statement. It was satisfied that the Australian government had agreed to a number of changes and assurances.
Facebook had blocked news pages on its platform for Australian users on Thursday (Werbewoche.ch reported). Since then, Facebook users have no longer been able to share national or international journalistic content. In doing so, the company opposed a proposed law by the Australian government that would force Google and Facebook to pay local media companies to distribute their content. Australia wants to ensure that advertising revenue is distributed more fairly. The dispute had recently escalated. The government announced on Monday that it would withdraw planned advertisements on Facebook (Werbewoche.ch reported). (SDA)