Facebook has threatened to stop users from sending news to Australia because it has drafted a new law requiring them to pay for their articles.
Regulators want tech companies like
Facebook and Google to pay for content published by news outlets.
Last month, Google warned its users that
its search services could be "dramatically worse".
Facebook's recent move to curb news
sharing has raised tensions between tech companies and regulators.
The social media network has said that if
the proposed law becomes law, it will stop Australians from sharing news on
Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram.
The Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission (ACCC) has developed rules to "equalize the playing field"
between tech giants and publishers who say they are struggling with the loss of
advertising.
The ACCC responded to Facebook's threat to
block news content, saying it was "untimely and misunderstood".
"This regulation is intended solely
to bring transparency and openness to Google's relationship with Facebook and
the Australian news media business," said Rod Sims, chairman of the ACCC.
But in a blog post, Facebook's managing
director for Australia and New Zealand, Will Easton, said the bill
"misunderstood the dynamics of the Internet and would hurt the very news
agencies that the government protects." Has been ".
He argued that this would force Facebook
to pay for content that publishers voluntarily prepare to generate traffic to
their news sites on their platform.
Mr. Aston claimed that Facebook had sent
2.3 billion clicks to the Australian news website from Facebook's news feed during the first five months of the year, valued at about 200 200 million (14
148 million).
"Blocking the news is not our first
choice - it's our last resort," he said.
A Facebook spokesman told the BBC he would
"provide specific details soon" on how to enforce the ban.
Some business experts argue that tech
firms should pay publishers for content that they republish according to this
standard.
"Google, Facebook and others have
long been reluctant to give it away for free," Michael Wade, a professor
at IMD Business School in Switzerland and Singapore, told the BBC last month.
Google and Facebook pay for some news
content in specific markets, and have stated that they intend to extend these
measures to more countries.
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