Sydney (AFP)
Facebook restored access to news content for its Australian users on Friday after reaching an agreement with the government on a landmark law requiring it, like other tech giants, to pay media.
Australian media Facebook pages could be refreshed again on Friday morning for the first time in a week, since the social network blocked the publication of links to articles in local or international media in response to a bill to regulate the relationship between traditional media and tech giants.
Main targets, Facebook and Google had reacted strongly to the bill, voted on Thursday, and which requires them to pay the media for the resumption of their content.
To avoid being sanctioned, Google, which for a time threatened to suspend its search engine in Australia, agreed last week to pay "significant sums" in return for the content of Australian press groups including News Corp.
by Rupert Murdoch and Nine Entertainment, the two main ones.
For its part, Facebook, less dependent on the media, had gone so far as to temporarily block news content to show its disapproval.
Several official rescue service Facebook pages were also unintentionally affected.
Faced with the outcry, Facebook finally backed down, sealing a last-minute deal with Canberra on media compensation for their content broadcast on its platforms.
After this compromise, Facebook had assured to want "more than ever to associate with press editors", and is committed, like Google, to invest globally "at least" $ 1 billion in news content over the next three years.
Google has also promised to pay newspaper publishers to use their content in a new tool called Google News Showcase, as has Facebook for those who will appear in "News", a product to be rolled out in the coming months in Australia.
The law passed Thursday in Australia is considered the first in the bitter battle between tech giants and national regulatory authorities.
According to Canberra, it should make it possible to guarantee press groups, in serious financial difficulties, "fair remuneration in exchange for the content they generate, thus helping to support public interest journalism in Australia".
© 2021 AFP