Facebook is carrying out its threat.
The American group announced Thursday evening that it was banning press articles from the Australian version of the social network.
Australian media can no longer share content from their official pages.
As for Internet users in the country, they will no longer see press articles appearing on their news feed, whether Australian or international.
The US group protests against an Australian law under discussion that aims to force Facebook and Google to enter into licensing agreements with media groups on the island.
“
As we have explained many times to the Australian government in recent months, the exchange of value between Facebook and news publishers is in favor of the latter,
” claims the social network.
“
We make little money with information.
This content represents less than 4% of the publications seen by users on their news feed.
"
Read also: Australia is crossing swords with Google and Facebook
The Australian government wants Google and Facebook, which captures most of the online advertising market, to help fund the media.
The law under discussion wants to force these two groups to negotiate financial agreements with the press groups.
If the two parties do not agree on a price, an external arbitrator will settle the dispute.
Facebook News shutdown
The two American companies strongly protested against this project.
Google in particular threatened to prevent access to its search engine in Australia.
But the group has since signed three-year financial agreements with certain press groups.
He notably forged a global partnership with the NewsCorp group on Wednesday.
Read also: Under Australian pressure, Google agrees with News Corp to share advertising revenue
Facebook refuses to follow this path.
"
We were ready to launch Facebook News in Australia
," a social network tab featuring a selection of press articles in exchange for compensation from publishers, but "
we will now redirect these investments to other countries.
"
We hope the Australian government recognizes the value we already bring to news publishers, and works with us to strengthen, rather than limit, our partnership with them.
"
The social network specifies that it will continue to fight disinformation on the Australian version of its social network.