Social media giant Facebook has agreed to lift its ban on Australians sharing news after a deal was struck on legislation that would make digital giants pay for journalism.
The Australian government treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Facebook confirmed they had reached agreement on amendments to proposed legislation that would make the social network and Google pay for news they feature.
Facebook blocked Australian users from accessing and sharing news on the site after the House of Representatives passed the draft law late on Wednesday last week.
The Senate will debate amended legislation later today that should allow the service to resume.
“The government has been advised by Facebook that it intends to restore Australian news pages in the coming days,” Mr Frydenberg and communications minister Paul Fletcher said in a statement.
Facebook’s move had earlier been labelled as an “attack on democracy” in an open letter from dozens of prominent charities, media and campaign groups around the world.
A spokesperson for the UK Government said they were concerned by Facebook's actions and officials planned to hold talks with the social media giant.
The spokesperson added: “We are obviously concerned about access to news being restricted in Australia. As we always have done, we’ll be robust in defending free speech and journalism.”
