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Tech giant Facebook will lift Australia’s news ban after the government said it will make some changes to the content law it is working on.
“As a result of these changes, we can now work to further our investment in public interest journalism and restore news on Facebook for Australians in the coming days,” said Will Easton, head of Facebook Australia.
“We are pleased that we have been able to reach an agreement with the Australian Government and appreciate the constructive discussions we have had,” Easton added.
The changes, the government explained, will consider whether the digital platform has made “a significant contribution to the sustainability of the Australian news industry” by having entered into commercial agreements with media companies.
Another amendment states that as a last resort, the intervention of an arbitration tribunal that would establish the amount to be paid if there is no commercial agreement between the platforms and the media will be applied as a last resort.
Last week, a war broke out between the Australian government and Facebook after the latter blocked local media publications without notice, affecting several public service portals.
The confrontation was motivated by a bill, approved last week by the House of Representatives and under debate in the Senate, which requires technology companies to reach an agreement with the media to remunerate them for the creation of news according to the monetization of the links published on the platform.
