Facebook Announces To Invest $1 Billion In News After Making Peace With Australian Govt.
Facebook intends to invest a minimum of $1 billion to support the news industry over the next three years, the tech giant announced in a statement on Wednesday, February 24.
The announcement has come just a couple of days after it said it has settled an agreement with the Australian government and said to restore the news pages in Australia. Facebook had blocked news sharing and viewing in the country a week ago.
The news content blocking was Facebook’s way of protest to the new law in Australia that compels social media to pay news publishers for sharing their contents.
Facebook called the tension “a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship between Facebook and news publishers”.
It also stated the allegation that the tech company “steals or takes original journalism for its own benefit” was untrue in the past and even now.
Moreover, Facebook said it “is more than willing to partner with news publishers”.
The social media said it had “invested $600 million since 2018 to support the news industry” and revealed its plan to spend at least $1 billion in the news industry over the next three years.
