Facebook bans news content in Australia after proposed law would’ve forced company to pay media outlets

Facebook announced on Wednesday that it will be banning news content from being shared or viewed by Australian users and publishers. This decision comes in response to the Australian government’s proposed Media Bargaining law, which would require the social media site to pay news outlets.

In a blog post, Facebook wrote that the proposed law “misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers,” and said that it has decided to stop sharing news content down under because of it.

The social media company explained that because of this change in policy, Australian publishers won’t be able to share content on Facebook pages. They will, however, retain access to tools such as “Page Insights” and “Creator Studio” and other standard Facebook services, such as CrowdTangle.

For international publishers, this shift means that their content cannot be viewed or shared on the platform in Australia. It also means that Australian Facebook users cannot view or share news content on the social network (whether it’s from an Australian publisher or an international one), and that international users cannot view or share content from Australian outlets.

Back in August, Facebook published a blog post detailing its problems with the law.

When asked for comment by Newsweek, Facebook deferred to tweets and a blog post by Global News Partnerships VP Campbell Brown.

In the post, Brown explains briefly how Facebook is beneficial to news outlets. “Publishers choose to share their stories on Facebook. From finding new readers to getting new subscribers and driving revenue, news organizations wouldn’t use Facebook if it didn’t help their bottom lines,” she wrote.

She also expressed a hope to bring news back to the Australian Facebook community. “I hope in the future, we can include news for people in Australia once again. For now, we continue to be focused on bringing Facebook News and other new products to more countries and we have no intention of slowing down,” she said.