Facebook owner angers Australia with plan to stop paying for news

SYDNEY (Reuters) -- Meta Platforms has said it will stop paying Australian news publishers for content that appears on Facebook, setting up a fresh battle with Canberra, which led the world with a law that forces internet giants to strike licensing deals.

News publishers and governments like Australia have argued that Facebook and Google unfairly benefit when links to news articles appear on their platforms. Meta has been scaling back its promotion of news and politics content to drive traffic and says news links are now a fraction of users' feeds.

Meta will discontinue a tab on Facebook that promotes news in Australia and the United States, it said in a statement, adding that it canceled the news tab last year in the U.K., France and Germany.

As a result, "we will not enter into new commercial deals for traditional news content in these countries and will not offer new Facebook products specifically for news publishers," the statement added.

The decision pits Meta against the Australian government, which under a 2021 law -- opposed by Meta -- has the power to appoint a mediator who determines how much big tech firms pay for news links.

"Meta's decision to no longer pay for news content in a number of jurisdictions represents a dereliction of its commitment to the sustainability of Australian news media," Communications Minister Michelle Rowland and Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said in a joint statement.

The government was seeking advice on its next steps from the Department of the Treasury and antitrust regulator the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, they added.

The country's biggest media outlets lambasted the decision, calling it an attack on the industry.

"Meta is using its immense market power to refuse