Facebook to lift news ban after last-gasp deal
Facebook said on Tuesday it will lift a contentious ban on Australians sharing news and pay local media companies for content, after a lastgasp deal on pending landmark legislation. Australia’s Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced a face-saving compromise that will see Google and Facebook plunge tens of millions of dollars into the struggling local news sector. In return the US digital firms will, for now, avoid being subjected to mandatory payments that could cost them vastly more and create what they see as an alarming global precedent.