High-stakes meeting held over news ban

Australia and Facebook held talks on Friday after the social media giant blacked out news for its Australian users, as Canberra insisted it wouldn’t back down on a new law that would force the tech firm to pay for journalistic content. From Thursday, Facebook has blanked out the pages of media outlets for Australian users and blocked them from sharing any news content, rather than submit to the proposed legislation. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said he had spoken with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday to find a way out of the showdown, and negotiations would continue over the weekend. Prime Minister Scott Morrison also urged Facebook to “move quickly past” what he called threatening behavior and “come back to the table”.