Days after Facebook announced the removal of Australian news from its platform, things changed today.
After negotiations with the Australian government, Facebook agreed to restore the news pages. The company’s statement reads the following:
“After further discussions, we are satisfied that the Australian government has agreed to a number of changes and guarantees that address our core concerns about allowing commercial deals that recognize the value our platform provides to publishers relative to the value we receive from them.”
Despite today’s outcome, the Australian government continues its efforts to pass the law which forces digital platforms to pay local media outlets and publishers for their content. If passed, the law will allow the government to consider the deals that platforms like Google and Facebook made with local media outlets. Moreover, if the parties involved in the agreement cannot reach an agreement, the government-appointed arbitrators can decide on a final price by ruling in favor of either party.
At the moment of writing, Facebook stock price is trading 1.86% lower.
Read more about what happened in the past days here!
Sources: bbc.com, finance.yahoo.com, cnbc.com