Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Saturday that Facebook is back at the negotiating table.
The announcement came just days after the company ordered to block news on its site.
The tech giant abruptly decided to stop Australians from viewing and sharing news — also ordering to remove the pages of local and foreign outlets. Facebook also caused widespread anger after erasing several state government, health, and emergency departments’ accounts.
In a news conference in Sydney, Morrison said the tech firm “tentatively friended us again.”
He also added: “What I’m pleased about it that Facebook is back at the table again.” However, the social media company has publicly said it had no plans to change its opposition to the Australian law.
The said proposed law requires social media platforms to pay for news content links.
On Friday, Australia’s Treasurer Josh Frydenberg stated that he had spoken with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, alleging that further talks were expected over the weekend. Nonetheless, it was not confirmed if said conversations have happened.
Frydenberg representatives haven’t commented on the matter yet.
Australia vowed to press ahead with the landmark legislation, which would force Facebook and Google to set commercial agreements with national publishers. Otherwise, they could face compulsory arbitration.
The law got extensive cross-party support in the Parliament and is expected to be passed by the Senate within next week.
Simon Milner, Facebook’s Asia-Pacific policy director, was quoted on Saturday by the Sydney Morning Herald saying that the company had three main objections to the legislation. Those are:
– Facebook objects to being stopped from discriminating between different news outlets that ask for money.
– To arbitration models allowing an independent body to select one payment over another.
– To the obligation to enter commercial negotiations with Australian media companies.
Australia’s legislation is being observed overseas and could even set a global precedent.
Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault said on Thursday that his country would adopt the Australian approach to formulate its own legislation in the coming months.
Meanwhile, after threatened Australia to close its search engine, Google has announced a host of preemptive licensing deals with publishers, including a global agreement with News Corp.
