Australia pushes ahead with content law despite Facebook news blackout


  • English
  • Arabic

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday promised to press ahead with laws to force Facebook to pay news outlets for content, saying he had received support from world leaders after the social media platform blacked out all media.

Facebook on Thursday stripped the pages of domestic and foreign news outlets for Australians and blocked users of its platform from sharing any news content, saying it had been left with no choice ahead of the new content laws.

The move, which also erased several state government and emergency department accounts, as well as nonprofit charity sites, caused widespread outrage.

Mr Morrison, who blasted Facebook on its own platform for "unfriending" Australia, said on Friday the leaders of Britain, Canada, France and India had shown support.

"There is a lot of world interest in what Australia is doing," Mr Morrison said in Sydney.

"That is why I invite ... Facebook to constructively engage because they know that what Australia will do here is likely to be followed by many other western jurisdictions."

Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault said late on Thursday his country would adopt the Australian approach as it crafts its own legislation in coming months.

The Australian law, which will force Facebook and Google to reach commercial deals with Australian publishers or face compulsory arbitration, has already been cleared by the federal lower house and is expected to be passed by the Senate within the next week.

Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said he had spoken to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg for a second time after the news blackout.

"We talked through their remaining issues and agreed our respective teams would work through them immediately. We'll talk again over the weekend," Mr Frydenberg said in a tweet.

Announcing the move in Australia, Facebook said the Australian law misunderstood its value to publishers. Mr Frydenberg earlier told the Australian Broadcasting Corp that "there is something much bigger here at stake than just one or two commercial deals. This is about Australia's sovereignty".

Facebook and Google campaigned together against the laws, with both threatening to withdraw key services from Australia if the laws took effect.

Google, however, announced a host of pre-emptive licencing deals in the past week, including a global agreement with News Corp.

Facebook restored some government pages later on Thursday, but several charity, nonprofit and even neighbourhood groups stayed dark.

The Doctors Without Borders Facebook page had its content removed in Australia. Getty Images
The Doctors Without Borders Facebook page had its content removed in Australia. Getty Images

Web Traffic Slumps

Facebook's move had an immediate impact on traffic to Australian news sites, according to early data from New York-based analytics firm Chartbeat.

Total traffic to the Australian news sites from various platforms fell from the day before the ban by about 13 per cent within the country and by about 30 per cent outside the country, the Chartbeat data showed.

Similarly, traffic to the Australian news sites from Facebook alone plummeted from about 21 per cent to about 2 per cent within Australia, and from about 30 per cent to about 4 per cent outside the country.

News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller, testifying at an unrelated parliamentary hearing, confirmed the impact but said the number of Australians visiting the company's websites directly had risen.

"Definitely referral traffic was nonexistent ... while at the same time direct traffic to our websites was up in double digits," he told the inquiry.

Mr Miller also suggested that the antitrust regulator, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, should scrutinise Facebook's move.

MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League quarter-final second leg:

Juventus 1 Ajax 2

Ajax advance 3-2 on aggregate

Global Fungi Facts

• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil

Brief scoreline:

Wolves 3

Neves 28', Doherty 37', Jota 45' 2

Arsenal 1

Papastathopoulos 80'

Ferrari 12Cilindri specs

Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12

Power: 819hp

Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm

Price: From Dh1,700,000

Available: Now

Libya's Gold

UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves. 

The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.

Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.

How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
  1. Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
  2. Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
  3. Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
  4. Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
  5. Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
  6. The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
  7. Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269

*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year

Poacher
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ERichie%20Mehta%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Nimisha%20Sajayan%2C%20Roshan%20Mathew%2C%20Dibyendu%20Bhattacharya%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E3%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The five pillars of Islam
SPECS

Engine: 4-litre V8 twin-turbo
Power: 630hp
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: 8-speed Tiptronic automatic
Price: From Dh599,000
On sale: Now

The specs: 2019 Haval H6

Price, base: Dh69,900

Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder

Transmission: Seven-speed automatic

Power: 197hp @ 5,500rpm

Torque: 315Nm @ 2,000rpm

Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km

The specs

Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors

Power: Combined output 920hp

Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm

Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic

Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km

On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025

Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000