Australian residents can no longer share news content on Facebook - the social network has abolished this option for residents of the continent. The company made this decision because of a new law - the Australian authorities have obliged such Internet giants as Google and Facebook to pay local media for their publications.

In Facebook, disabling news content for Australians was called a difficult decision, but still, the entire social network was banned from publishing and sharing links that lead to Australian media sites. The restrictions also affected the users themselves - now Australians can not read the news on Facebook, even foreign media.

Facebook believes that they are helping local publications and not vice versa. Thanks to the platform and the engaged users, local media get free traffic, increasing the audience and revenue from advertising materials. Also, the social network's revenue is not so dependent on local content - the share of news from Australian publications from all publications does not exceed four percent.

Google took a different position from Facebook. At first, the company did not want to make concessions to the authorities and threatened to stop the search engine in Australia. However, Google has now complied with the new law and signed a contract with the Australian media holding company News Corp. The company also launched a paid news service that hosts content received from publishers.