Facebook Inc will block news content from being read and shared in Australian news feeds, drawing a line in the sand in opposition to proposed Australian law requiring Alphabet Inc's Google to pay the country's news publishers for content.The move, announced in a blog post on Wednesday, highlighted the disparity in the tech giant's response to the demand of news publishers, blaming companies for destroying their advertising businesses.

Josh Frydenberg, xo Australia's treasurer, said he has. A "constructive conversation" with Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday and escalating talks with the company over the proposed media payment law will continue.(Zuckerberg) raised some of the remaining issues about the government news media's bargaining code and we agreed to continue the conversation to try and find a pathway, Frydenberg said in a tweet.

Australia's central government has said it plans to enact laws that force Google and Facebook to enter into agreements with media companies or impose fees for them to vote in the coming weeks.Google has also threatened to shut down its search engine in the country to circumvent the content laws. This "does not work" despite agreements with publishers in United Kindgom, Germany, France, Brazil and Argentina for the Google News Showcase product.On Wednesday,

Google reached a global agreement with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, owner of two-thirds of Australia's Wall Street Journal and major newspapers, to develop a subscription platform and split ad revenue.Facebook said the proposed law was "fundamentally misleading" about the relationship between itself and the publisher, claiming that news agencies voluntarily post links to their articles on Facebook, which helps Australian publishers to have their own. Approximately A $ 407 million in revenue in 2020, according to citation.

Emily Bell, director of Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School, tweeted Wednesday that the relationship was not as voluntary as it could have been and that most publishers felt the need to be on Facebook due to the dominance.Facebook, long criticized for letting misinformation appear on its platform, now finds itself in a bizarre position to block news media outlets providing factual scrutiny on false content.

No one has benefited from this decision, as Facebook will now be a platform for rapidly spreading misinformation with an imbalance," said a spokesman for Australia's television network Nine. He has a monopoly on unreasonable stance and behavior. Starting Wednesday, Australian users will not be able to read or share news content on Facebook news feeds and Australian news publishers will be restricted from posting or sharing content on Facebook pages.