Facebook will reverse news block in Australia

Facebook will restore news pages in Australia after the government agreed to change a proposed law forcing tech companies to pay publishers for news content.

"After further discussions with the Australian government, we have come to an agreement that will allow us to support the publishers we choose to, including small and local publishers," said Campbell Brown, head of Facebook's Global News Partnerships division, in a statement. "We're restoring news on Facebook in Australia in the coming days."

Under the proposed bill, Facebook and Google would be made to negotiate with local publishers over payment for the news content that surfaces on Facebook's feed and Google's search results. If no agreement could be reached in 90 days, government-appointed arbitrators would hand down a binding compensation agreement. Publishers would also need to be given advanced notice of changes to algorithms that would affect how their content is ordered and prioritized.

Facebook's handling of the situation has differed from that of Google. The search giant recently announced several multi-million dollar deals with Australian publishers in order to avoid falling afoul of the impending legislation.

Google also said last week that it had reached a three-year deal with News Corp. to pay them for their content globally, not just in Australia.

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