Facebook to invest "at least" $ 1 billion in news content in 3 years

Facebook has announced that it is investing "at least" $ 1 billion in news content over the next three years and has made a meager of its steadfastness in Australia.

This new envelope, communicated on Wednesday in a blog post by Nick Clegg, the public affairs manager of the social media giant, is in addition to the $ 600 million injected into the media since 2018.

It was formalized the day after the end of a Homeric standoff between Mark Zuckerberg's group and the Australian government over a law intended to regulate relations between traditional media, in great financial difficulty, and the behemoths that dominate the internet and capture a significant portion of advertising revenue.

Facebook is backing down

After blocking the publication of links to news articles from local or international media in response to the bill, the owner of Instagram and WhatsApp has finally backed down, sealing a last-minute deal with Canberra over remuneration of the media for their content broadcast on its platforms.

"We absolutely recognize that quality journalism is central to the way our societies operate - by informing and empowering citizens and holding the powerful" accountable for their actions, Nick Clegg explains.

The manager does not give the details of the distribution of the group's future investments in the media or the form that these will take, for example payments or partnerships. 

"Facebook wants more than ever to partner with press editors," said Nick Clegg, who took the opportunity to mea culpa on the initial firmness of Facebook in Australia.

"It was not a decision taken lightly," he explains.

"We had to make a decision quickly because it was legally necessary to do so before the law came into force. So we made a mistake in applying it too harshly. In doing so we blocked some content inadvertently. Fortunately, this was canceled quite quickly, "he concluded.

Compromise with the Australian government 

Nick Clegg, however, without naming him, lashes out at media mogul Rupert Murdoch, whose group was pushing for Australia's new law.

"Facebook would have been forced to pay potentially unlimited sums to multinational media conglomerates," he criticizes.

The compromise reached with the Australian government means that Facebook and Google - particularly targeted by the bill - will not be penalized if they make certain agreements with local media in order to pay for the information.

They were given two months to negotiate these arrangements and avoid binding arbitration.

Thus, the Australian media will collect millions of dollars from Google and Facebook.

For their part, the digital giants will not have to pay sums a priori higher than those granted and this will avoid an international precedent.