Facebook owner Meta has announced that it will not renew multi-million dollar contracts with several major news companies in Australia, France and Germany.
At the beginning of 2021, the US internet giant agreed to pay for journalistic content with, among others, Australia's ABC and News Corp. Australia's Guardian and Nine Entertainment.
These deals came a few weeks after the controversial media law was passed in Australia. The law forced Google and Facebook to pay local media companies to distribute their content.
Criticism from the Australian government
Australia wanted to ensure advertising revenues were distributed more fairly. A long dispute ensued between Facebook and the government, which partly escalated — but ended with an agreement in March 2021. The contracts, which expire in a few weeks, bring millions into the coffers of participating media outlets each year.
A statement from Facebook now states that users are not using the platform for news or political content and that the company wants to invest its money differently. The Australian government strongly criticized this announcement.
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