Headlines in Australia on February 19, 2021 after Facebook blocked news content.
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Rick Rycroft / AP / SIPA
The Australian media will be able to breathe.
Facebook announced on Tuesday the lifting "in the coming days" of the blockade in Australia of news content, the government having agreed to amend the law aimed at forcing the tech giants to pay the media for the resumption of their content.
Australian Finance Minister Josh Frydenberg and Facebook Australia Managing Director Will Easton said they had found a compromise on one of the key points of this text to which the US giants of the sector are fiercely opposed.
Australia's indignation
"With these changes, we can now work to continue our investment in public service journalism and restore Facebook news to Australians in the days ahead," said Will Easton.
Last week, Facebook blocked the publication of links to news articles and media pages nationwide.
Several official rescue service Facebook pages were also unintentionally affected.
This retaliatory measure sparked indignation in Australia as well as in many countries.
The compromise means that the behemoths Facebook and Google - particularly targeted by this bill - should not be punished as long as they make deals with media outlets in exchange for the use of their content.
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