"We have invested $ 600 million since 2018 to support the news industry and plan to invest at least an additional $ 1 billion over the next three years."
This was stated by Facebook's vice president for global affairs, Nick Clegg, in a long post following the story of the blocking of news on social media in Australia, after a government law.
"The issue has now been resolved following negotiations - he adds - and we look forward to making new agreements with publishers to allow Australians to be able to share news links on Facebook again".
Regarding the Australian story, Clegg explains that "at the center there was an underlying misunderstanding about the relationship between Facebook and publishers. It is the publishers themselves who choose to share their stories on social media, or to make them available for sharing by others, because they gain value in doing so. That's why they have buttons on their sites that encourage readers to share them. And if you click on a shared link on Facebook, you are directed to the publisher's site. In this way - adds the vice president for global social affairs - last year Facebook generated approximately 5.1 billion free referrals to Australian publishers worth an estimated A $ 407 million for the news industry. " Clegg, in his post, adds "that the decision to block news sharing in Australia was not taken lightly" that the platform "made the mistake of implementing the decision too rigidly, with some content accidentally blocked. Fortunately, much of this content was quickly restored. " "Fortunately - he concludes - after further talks, the Australian government has accepted changes that encourage fair negotiations, without the looming threat of heavy and unpredictable arbitration. There are legitimate concerns to address about the size and power of tech companies, as well as there are serious questions about the upheaval the Internet has brought to the information industry. The Internet needs new rules that work for everyone, not just the big media companies. "