This blocking is a retaliatory measure adopted by the American giant in the face of an Australian bill aimed at forcing platforms to pay the media.
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Tension between Facebook and Australia. The Australian government called Thursday (February 18th)“authoritarian” the blocking by the social network of sharing news articles in the country. A retaliatory measure by the American giant in the face of a bill aimed at forcing internet platforms to pay the media.
Australian Finance Minister Josh Frydenberg said authorities were not notified by Facebook of his decision to no longer allow users of the social network to post links to articles or view the Facebook pages of agencies. international press. According to him, these “measures are unnecessary [et] will damage its reputation here in Australia “.
Josh Frydenberg assured that his government remained “resolutely determined” to implement his bill. According to this “binding code of conduct”, the search engines will have to pay the press according to the traffic that the titles generate. It would be the first such attempt to be successful. The text was adopted last week by the House of Representatives and is now in the hands of the Senate.
Google and Facebook opposed and threatened to suspend their services if the Australian project was implemented. “What today’s events confirm for all Australians is the dominance of these giants in our economy and the digital landscape”, reacted again the Minister of Finance.
On Thursday morning, fire, health and meteorological services across the country saw their pages disrupted on the social network, as several regions faced emergency situations.
