Australian news content refriended on Facebook from Friday

Australian news content will return to Facebook on Friday, eight days after the social media giant banned it from the feeds of the digital platform’s local users.

Facebook’s global policy chief Nick Clegg. Picture: AFP

Australian news content will return to Facebook on Friday, eight days after the social media giant banned it from the feeds of the digital platform’s local users.

“I think there was understandable outrage across the broader community as to what Facebook did,” Josh Frydenberg said on Thursday night, adding that he understood the blackout would end before the weekend.

“Since that time, there’s been extensive discussions with the company and we’ve reached a sol­ution and the way forward.”

The return of Australian news to Facebook follows the final passage of the federal government’s mandatory news media bargaining code into law on Thursday, which brought to a close a three-year campaign to ensure that digital platforms including Google and Facebook fairly remunerate media companies for the original content they generate. The law is primarily intended to address the bargaining power imbalance between news media businesses and digital platforms, and to sustain public interest journalism.

The bill was passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday morning, after the amended legislation was approved by the Senate the previous night.

On Thursday, Facebook’s global policy chief Nick Clegg said the company planned to invest an extra $US1bn in the news industry over the next three years as a sign of commitment to journalism. “Facebook is more than willing to partner with news publishers. We absolutely recognise quality journalism is at the heart of how open societies function — informing and empowering citizens and holding the powerful to account,” he wrote in a blog post.

Facebook has already announced a commercial deal with Seven West Media, and is in ongoing discussions over similar arrangements with News Corp Australia, Nine, the Guardian Australia, ABC and SBS.

Facebook’s decision to ban Australian news content from its platform over the past week may have resulted in significant reputational damage. Digital and creative agency GrowthOps surveyed more than 500 Australian Facebook users and found the social media giant’s decision to remove local news content from their feeds was not well received. “A staggering 91 per cent of Australians are aware of the news media ban instigated by Facebook, which gives you a sense of both Facebook’s reach (and) the appetite the media has for covering the story,” GrowthOps digital general manager John Yanny said.

“The research found 56 per cent think Facebook’s news media ban was unjustified, while 36 per cent threatened to leave the platform. Only 19 per cent say they trust Facebook.”

Last week, Google announced a series of commercial deals with major commercial news media companies in Australia.

In a joint statement on Thursday, the Treasurer and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said the news media bargaining code — which will be used as a tool of final arbitration if news media organisations and digital platforms fail to reach commercial deals — was “world-leading”.

“The code is a significant micro-economic reform … that has drawn the eyes of the world on the Australian parliament.”