Juan J. Monroe 
Benjamin millar
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Australian Facebook users have been barred from accessing news sites through their social media feeds in a dramatic escalation of the tech giant’s standoff with the federal government over proposed new laws.
Facebook users had their local and international news links removed from their feeds, and all posts were deleted from the Facebook pages of Australian news organizations, including Star Weekly.
Star Weekly editor Paul Thomas said the measures were a “political position” and prove the ACCC’s claim that Facebook is a monopoly with undue market power.
Mr Thomas said Australian news agencies producing factual and balanced information make Facebook relevant.
“Facebook has moved away from news companies for too long,” he said.
“Facebook’s assertion that the exchange of value between Facebook and publishers is in favor of publishers is a complete fabrication of the truth.”
Mr Thomas said Facebook pays almost no local taxes, is not subject to the same defamation laws as the media, and does not pay copyright fees.
“Not to mention the fact that they don’t employ anyone to cultivate the content like the news agencies do, and they’re happy to piggyback on ours for years for free.”
The sudden shutdown, triggered Thursday, also wiped out content from a slew of other pages, including health and emergency services, social services, charities and the Bureau of Meteorology.
The company blamed the move on proposed Australian laws requiring tech companies like Facebook and Google to pay for news content.
Google announced multi-million dollar deals with a handful of Australian news agencies in local days, but Facebook has so far resisted negotiating direct deals before proposed legislative changes.
In an article posted to the Facebook webpage on Thursday morning, Facebook Australia and New Zealand chief executive William Easton confirmed that the company is banning publishers and people in Australia from sharing or viewing news content. Australian and international in response to Australia’s new media bargaining law.
“The bill fundamentally ignores the relationship between our platform and the publishers who use it to share topical content,” he said.
“This has left us with a difficult choice: to try to comply with a law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or to stop allowing news content on our services in Australia. With a heavy heart, we choose the latter.
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher told the ABC that Facebook needs to carefully consider what this means for its reputation and reputation.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg tweeted that he had had a “constructive discussion” with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday morning.
“He raised a few remaining issues with the government’s news media bargaining code and we agreed to continue our conversation to try and find a way forward.”
