Australian legislators are considering laws that would force digital giants into payment agreements.
Facebook has announced it has blocked Australians from viewing and sharing news on its social network platform because of laws that have been proposed in the country to make digital giants pay for journalism.
Australian publishers can continue to publish news content on Facebook, but links and posts can’t be viewed or shared by Australian audiences, the social media giant said in a statement.
Australian users cannot share content from domestic or international news sources while international users outside Australia cannot share news from Australian sources.
“The proposed law fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content,” Facebook regional managing director William Easton said.
“It has left us facing a stark choice: attempt to comply with a law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or stop allowing news content on our services in Australia. With a heavy heart, we are choosing the latter.”
