FB to restore Australian news pages after tweaks
Facebook will restore Australian news pages after Canberra offered amendments to legislation that would force the tech giant to pay for media content, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Tuesday.
Australia and the social media group have been locked in a standoff for more than a week after the government introduced legislation that challenged Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s Google’s dominance in the news content market.
Facebook last week blocked all news content and several state government and emergency department accounts.
But after a series of talks between Frydenberg and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the weekend, a concession deal has been struck.
Australia will offer four amendments, including to the mechanism for final offer arbitration, which a Facebook executive told local media was a sticking point for the company.
“We are satisfied that the Australian government has agreed to a number of changes and guarantees that address our core concerns about allowing commercial deals that recognize the value our platform provides to publishers relative to the value we receive from them,” Facebook said.
The issue has been widely watched internationally as other countries including Canada and Britain considering similar legislation.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Rod Sims, the main architect of the law, was not immediately available for comment. At a speech earlier on Tuesday, Sims declined to answer questions about the standoff.
Japanese Emperor Naruhito said he was anticipating a “bright future” as Japan began its COVID- 19 inoculation program, during an address to mark his 61st birthday on Tuesday.
Celebrations to mark the Emperor’s birthday have been muted in 2021 because of the pandemic.
“Fortunately, the number of new infections appears to be declining nationwide. Furthermore, coronavirus vaccinations have started,” Naruhito said, speaking to reporters at the imperial palace from behind a large transparent partition.
“I look forward to a bright future ahead, as our people overcome the coronavirus crisis by sharing the pain and helping each other, ” Naruhito said.
Japan’s COVID- 19 vaccination started in February, but one of the world’s most rapidly aging societies faces challenges with the program.
There will be limited supplies of vaccine doses for the first months of the rollout and shots for the elderly will be distributed gradually, the inoculation chief said on Monday.
On the Emperor’s birthday, visitors usually come to the imperial palace to offer good wishes and sign a guestbook – a practice that dates back to 1948. The Emperor also appears on a palace balcony with other members of the imperial family to speak to visitors.
Those events were canceled in 2021. Naruhito’s new year public appearance in January was also replaced by a video message.
Naruhito, the grandson of Emperor Hirohito in whose name Imperial troops fought World War II, is Japan’s first monarch born after the war. He ascended the throne in 2019 after his father, Akihito, abdicated.