- Media execs are weighing the potential international fallout of Facebook’s Australia news ban.
- Web traffic to Australian news sites began to drop significantly just hours after the ban.
- Australia could serve as a testing ground for tussles elsewhere between regulators and Big Tech.
Facebook’s move Wednesday to ban news content in Australia has caused shockwaves not only among publishers Down Under but among news execs elsewhere who are wary that they could soon face similar situations as regulators bear down on Big Tech.
The social networking giant blocked all Australian users and publishers from sharing or viewing news content – a ban that extended to preventing users from outside the country from viewing content published by Australian news outlets. The ban was a response to a proposed law called the News Media Bargaining Code that would force tech companies to pay to display Australian publishers’ news content on their platforms.
Media executives around the globe told Insider they were watching the developments in Australia closely as broader tensions between tech platforms, publishers and regulators near a boiling point in the US and beyond.
