Facebook Just Banned Australians From Sharing And Viewing News On Its Platform

Australia is currently trying to pass a law in which it would make it so that websites like Facebook and Google would have to pay news publishers in order to use their posts on their platforms. Unfortunately for Australians, it seems that Facebook isn’t interested in doing that and the company has since banned users in Australia from viewing or sharing news on its platform.

According to Facebook, they say that the law “fails to understand” how their services work, and as such, they made the decision to restrict the posting of news-related articles from users and publications from Australia. “Unfortunately, this means people and news organisations in Australia are now restricted from posting news links and sharing or viewing Australian and international news content on Facebook. Globally, posting and sharing news links from Australian publishers is also restricted.”

This doesn’t just affect the posting/sharing of news, but it also affects Australians from viewing the news, even if it might be posted by someone in a different country. Google had also previously warned the Australian government that they might pull its search feature in Australia over the proposed law.

However, in Google’s case, they seem to have come to some kind of understanding with several Australian publishers, such as News Corp, The Australian, Nine Entertainment, Seven West Media, and so on.

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: Facebook, Legal