The company told Australian lawmakers it is waiting for the government to decide if it would apply a 2021 law that requires Meta to pay fees to news publishers.
Meta is considering blocking news content from Facebook if Australia passes a law requiring the platform to pay licensing fees.
This comes just months after Facebook said that it will not enter new commercial deals for traditional news content – in other words, it will stop paying publishers for news – in Australia and the US as it continues to invest in products and services that “drive user engagement”.
Meta regional policy director Mia Garlick told lawmakers in the Australian parliament that “all options are on the table”, according to Reuters, when asked if the company would block Australians from sharing news content if asked to pay fees by the government.
“There’s a large number of channels that people can get news content from,” Garlick said in a parliamentary hearing today (28 June).
The issue between Australia and Facebook goes back to 2021, when the platform blocked content from Australian news media from appearing on its platform just ahead of a new code requiring companies to pay publishers being voted into law.
Garlick said that Meta was waiting for the Australian government to decide if it would apply the untested 2021 law.
“Every other law – tax laws, safety laws, privacy laws – we work to comply with. It’s just compliance would look slightly different in relation to this law if it’s fully enacted.”
Last summer, Meta said it was planning to end access to news on Facebook and Instagram in Canada after the country’s Online News Act received Royal Assent by the governor general.
As of December, Canada said it will keep pushing Meta and other Big Tech companies to pay Canadian news publishers for their content. Google, meanwhile, agreed to pay millions for news in Canada.
“This enactment regulates digital news intermediaries to enhance fairness in the Canadian digital news marketplace and contribute to its sustainability,” the Canadian government said at the time.
Meta stopped showing the News tab on Facebook in Australia and the US recently to focus more on short-form video content. According to the company, the number of people using Facebook News in Australia and the US dropped by more than 80pc last year.
Find out how emerging tech trends are transforming tomorrow with our new podcast, Future Human: The Series. Listen now on Spotify, on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.
