Facebook Blocks News in Australia, Diverging With Google on Proposed Law (Published 2021)
With Australia moving to make the tech companies pay for news, Facebook took a hard line, while Google has struck deals to pay publishers.
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/17/technology/facebook-google-australia-news.html
But by 9 a.m. in Sydney, the impact was apparent and even more wide-reaching than Facebook’s statements suggested. In addition to news publishers being blocked, pages for Fire and Rescue New South Wales, the Bureau of Meteorology and state police departments had all been wiped clean. Even state government pages with public health information about the pandemic were blocked, prompting outrage from many officials and lawmakers including Senator Sarah Hanson-Young of South Australia.