Facebook threatens to block Australian publishers from sharing news stories

Facebook threatened to block Australian publishers and individuals from sharing news stories on its platform in reaction to an Australian measure that could require it to compensate media organisations for its use of their stories.

The social network said the Australian move would force it to pay arbitrary and theoretically unlimited sums for information that makes up only a small fraction of its service.

The measure would force Facebook to choose between either removing news entirely or accepting a system that lets publishers charge us for as much content as they want at a price with no clear limits, the company’s managing director for Australia and New Zealand, Will Easton, wrote in a blog post.