Name: Facebook news goes dark in Australia
Uploaded: 2021-02-18T18:55:14.000Z
Duration: 2 min 4 s
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Australians work to empty news feeds on their Facebook pages Thursday morning after the social media giant blocked or media content for users there.

The surprise blackout comes after weeks of escalation between Australia's government and big tech over who pays for content.

Adverbs of manner

Government health pages and emergency services have bean scrubbed, too.

That sparked a storm of criticism online.

Given the information is vital at the heart of Australia's bushfire season and amid the global health crisis.

Treasurer Josh Frye Edinburgh said the decision was wrong and heavy handed.

But what today's events do confirm for all Australians is the immense market power off these media digital giants.

These digital giants loom very, very large in our economy.

On on the digital landscape, Facebook is responding to a new law expected to pass through Australia's parliament within days.

It would force them to pay local publishers for content making Facebook and Google strike commercial deals with news outlets whose links drive traffic to their platforms.

But Facebook's drastic reaction represents a split with Google.

Both had campaigned against the law and threatened to pull services in Australia instead of going dark.

Though Google has Bean, signing its own preemptive deals with Australia's television networks and the likes of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Google declined to comment on Facebook's decision.

On Thursday, Facebook said in a statement the law quote fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between itself and publishers, and it faced a stark choice of attempting to comply or ban use content.

 They've argued that news outlets voluntarily post their article links on Facebook, which allows them to sell more subscriptions and grow their audiences. 