In several countries, including Australia, Meta, the company behind the social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Threads must pay the country's government compensation to display news content from media companies in that country. This was agreed upon by both parties a few years ago, and the payment contract will need to be renewed after 2024.
At a recent Australian parliamentary session, representatives from Meta have announced that after the media payment contract expires after this year, it is highly likely that Meta will ban broadcasting coverage and news links from their platforms, as they no longer want to pay the government. said for this matter.
This is not the first time Meta has decided not to allow news content to be posted on their platform. Previously, Meta had also announced that news links would no longer be allowed to be posted in Canada after payment contracts to media companies in that country expired for the same reason.
So far it is not known whether the Australian government will force Meta to continue payments to local media institutions or not, especially with joint agreements with companies such as News Corp and the Australian Broadcasting Company about to expire.
Meanwhile, a Reuters report also said that Nine Entertainment and Seven West Media said they would be forced to lay off some of their workforce due to loss of income from the end of their payment contract with Meta.