Even more so, Australian Communication Minister Michelle Rowland’s office, Meta and Google, did not respond to Reuters’s request to comment. In 2021 Australia moved forward with a law that made US tech giants such as Alphabet and Meta compensate media companies for links that draw readers and attract advertising revenue.
It is also worth mentioning that Meta struck several deals with different Australian media firms among which was News Corp and the Australian Broadcasting Corp, the national broadcasting company. Yet, it was mentioned that Meta will no longer renew those deals beyond 2024.
Meta has also been scaling back their promotion of news and content that has political roots in order to draw more traffic. As of now, news links are a fraction of the user’s feeds, being said that they would discontinue a tab on Facebook that promotes news in Australia.
