Facebook parent company: Meta stops cooperation with media in Australia

Facebook owner Meta does not want to extend its multi-million dollar contracts with several major news companies in Australia in the future. At the beginning of 2021, the US group agreed on payments for journalistic content with, among others, the Australian ABC, News Corp , the Australian Guardian and Nine Entertainment. The deals came about a few weeks after the passage of a media law in Australia.

This obliges Google and Facebook to pay traditional media companies when they distribute their content. The Australian government wanted to ensure that advertising revenue was distributed more fairly. Meta already criticized the new regulation back then. According to the agreements with the media involved, the group had to pay millions to them – but the contracts expire in a few weeks.

Australia’s government criticizes meta-decision

A statement from Facebook now states that users do not use the platform for news and political content and that the company wants to invest its money differently. “This is part of our ongoing effort to better align our investments with our products and services that people value most,” the company wrote.

The Australian government criticized the announcement. Australian news publishers deserve fair compensation for the content they provide, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has said. She will ask the Treasury and the competition regulator for advice on next steps. ABC reported that the government could force Facebook to enter into arbitration with media companies to determine compensation for news content.

Facebook owner Meta does not want to extend its multi-million dollar contracts with several major news companies in Australia in the future. At the beginning of 2021, the US group agreed on payments for journalistic content with, among others, the Australian ABC, News Corp , the Australian Guardian and Nine Entertainment. The deals came about a few weeks after the passage of a media law in Australia.

This obliges Google and Facebook to pay traditional media companies when they distribute their content. The Australian government wanted to ensure that advertising revenue was distributed more fairly. Meta already criticized the new regulation back then. According to the agreements with the media involved, the group had to pay millions to them – but the contracts expire in a few weeks.

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