CANBERRA • Facebook is back at the negotiating table, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday after the tech giant last week blocked news on its site in the country.
Facebook's abrupt decision to stop Australians from sharing news on the site and strip the pages of domestic and foreign news outlets also erased several state government and emergency department accounts, causing widespread anger.
The company has "tentatively friended us again", Mr Morrison said at a news conference in Sydney. "What I'm pleased about is that Facebook is back at the table again."
Facebook has publicly indicated no change in its opposition to a proposed law requiring social media platforms to pay for links to news content. Mr Morrison was not asked about that.
Australia's Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Friday that he had spoken to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and that further talks were expected over the weekend.
It was not clear whether those talks have happened.
A Facebook spokesman and representatives for Mr Frydenberg did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The stand-off comes as Australia vows to press ahead with the landmark legislation, which could set a global precedent as countries like Canada express interest in taking similar action.
The Australian law, which would force Facebook and Alphabet's Google to reach commercial deals with Australian publishers or face compulsory arbitration, has cleared the Lower House of Parliament and is expected to be passed by the Senate within the next week.
Facebook's Asia-Pacific policy director of policy for the Asia-Pacific region Simon Milner was quoted yesterday as telling the Sydney Morning Herald that the company had three main objections to the legislation.
He said that Facebook objects to being barred from discriminating between different news outlets that ask for money, to arbitration models that allow an independent body to select one payment over another, and to the obligation to enter commercial negotiations with Australian media companies.
Facebook declined to make Mr Milner available to speak to Reuters.
REUTERS
