Facebook cracks deal with Australia, to restore news pages
FollowFacebook has struck a deal with the Australian government and agreed to restore news on the platform for Australians in the coming days.
In a statement, Facebook said that after multiple rounds of discussions, the Australian government had agreed to a number of changes and guarantees that address its core concerns.
The core concerns Facebook is referring to involves allowing commercial deals that 'recognise the values our platform provides to publishers relative to the value we receive from them'.
The Australian government has clarified that Facebook will retain the ability to decide if news appears on Facebook so that the platform is not subject to a forced negotiation.
Campbell Brown, Facebook VP for Global News Partnerships, said the platform will resist efforts by media conglomerates to "advance regulatory frameworks that do not take account of the true value exchange between publishers and platforms like Facebook".
Facebook had blocked access to news content in Australia after the country passed a new Media Bargaining Law which sought to provide better bargaining power to news companies who have struggled for ad revenues.
Facebook had contended that the new law failed to recognise the fundamental nature of the relationship between its platform and publishers.
