Facebook threatens to ban news in Australia from its platform

If Australia enacts a Competition and Consumer Commission proposal, Facebook will make posting and sharing news on its social network and Instagram impossible for users in that country. At least that is what Facebook threatens.

The bill from the competition authority would force Facebook to pay for news that publishers themselves voluntarily put on the platform. If the bill becomes law, Facebook would have to accept that publishers charge them “ for as much content as they want, with no clear limits, ” Facebook’s claim continues. The company would “ reluctantly ” block news sharing on Facebook and Instagram in Australia to prevent that.

Facebook is not alone in its criticism of the bill. Last month, Google criticized the same rules for compelling the company to manipulate search results in favor of news media companies.

The proposed rules originate from a voluntary code of conduct that tech companies in Australia would have to comply with after negotiation with the media companies. Earlier this year, the government of the country decided to make the code of conduct mandatory through a bill because otherwise the code of conduct would not be complied with. The rules stipulate, among other things, that tech companies must share revenue based on news they publish on their platforms. The government states that companies that create the content must be paid for it.

According to Facebook, publishers benefit more from the social platform than the other way around. The company says it delivered 2.3 billion clicks to news sites in the country in the first five months of this year, at no charge.