Facebook will restore Australian news pages after Canberra offered amendments to a proposed law designed to force tech giants to pay for media content displayed on their platforms, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Tuesday. Facebook last week blocked all news content and several state government and emergency department accounts. But after a series of talks between Frydenberg and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the weekend, a concession deal has been struck. A spokesman for Australian publisher and broadcaster Nine Entertainment Co. welcomed the government’s compromise, which it said moved “Facebook back into the negotiations with Australian media organisations.”A Google spokesman declined to comment. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Rod Sims, the main architect of the law, was not immediately available for comment.

Source: Standard Digital February 23, 2021 05:26 UTC