Facebook Cuts Off News in Australia in Fight Over Payments
- Escalates battle over proposal to force payments for articles
- Law ‘misunderstands’ relationship with news, Facebook says
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Facebook Inc. has started restricting the sharing of news on its service in Australia, defying a controversial proposed law that would require technology companies to pay publishers when their articles are posted by users.
The ban constitutes the strongest action yet in response to the proposed legislation, which would force Facebook and Alphabet Inc.’s Google to pay publishers for the value their articles generate on the digital platforms. News outlets have demanded such payments, arguing they should be fairly compensated for their journalism as Google and Facebook capture much of the advertising market.