Facebook won’t keep paying Australian media outlets for their content. Are we about to get another news ban? meta
acebook’s parent company, Meta, has announced it will stop paying for news content in Australia when the current deals it has expire. Meta will also cease news aggregation on the site. Three years ago, the company signed deals with Australian news outlets after the government introduced laws requiring tech companies to pay for the news on their platforms. The law only comes into effect if no commercial deal is struck. Meta has now decided that the cost of providing news in Australia is too high. Its reason for the change is to “better align our investments to our products and services people value the most”. That is, it saves money. So what does this mean for news on Facebook? What can users expect to find on the platform? Read more: The news is fading from sight on big social media platforms – where does that leave journalism? An unsurprising manoeuvre This decision was largely predictable, as it’s consistent with Meta’s actions in the UK, France, and Germany in December 2023. Th...