Facebook bans users and publishers from sharing news in Australia

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    Facebook has made good on its threat to ban Australians from seeing or posting news content on its site in response to the federal government’s proposed news media code. As of Thursday morning, news publishers were unable to post content on pages, while articles were also blocked from being shared. In implementing its new ban, the social media giant also blocked a number of government departments, charities and its own page. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg lambasted the company, saying the social media giant's 'actions were unnecessary, they were heavy-handed, and they will damage its reputation here in Australia' Facebook blocks Australian users and publishers from viewing or sharing news Facebook's botched Australia news ban hits health departments, charities and its own pages Australia politics live: 'Facebook was wrong' to block pages in news ban, Josh Frydenberg says – question time

    I don’t have Facebook but do source a lot of news from my local newspaper from their Facebook pages. Damn them! I’m not paying for the stories either which is what all the news sites want you to do. A lot of Australian media are not happy understandably.

    From what I understood, the new legislation forces Facebook to pay the corresponding news publisher every time they're linked on the platform, i.e., every time someone shares a link to a news. It also obliges Facebook to enter in a commercial agreement with every news publisher of Australia, and the value paid is to be defined by a third-party, not by negotiation. And the law forbids them to enter into specific agreements with any publisher, it's all or nothing. The News correspond to less than 4% of Facebook's traffic. Thus, Facebook decided on the nothing.


    It's just another case of badly done Government Intervention in the Free Market.

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