Fair-weather friends

18 Feb 2021 By Jeffrey Goldfarb Follow @jgfarb

The social network blocked news in Australia in defiance of Canberra’s effort to make it pay publishers. The search titan’s deals with Rupert Murdoch’s empire and others may protect it from wider oversight. Government and media have only chipped off fragments of Big Tech’s clout.

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Facebook said on Feb. 17 that it would restrict publishers and users in Australia from sharing or seeing local and international news. The social media company is doing so because it disagrees with the government’s proposal to make big technology companies pay publishers and broadcasters for content under a binding arbitration system if private negotiations fail.

Separately, Google struck a three-year deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp to pay to feature news from the company’s Australian newspapers and others from around the world, including The Wall Street Journal and The Sun in Britain, on its fledgling Google News Showcase service.

Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Twitter that he had a “constructive discussion” with Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on Feb. 18 and that “we agreed to continue our conversation to find a pathway forward.”

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