Facebook announces $1 billion investment in news industry over the next 3 years

Facebook announced Tuesday that the tech giant would lift a ban on news links in Australian after the government agreed to re-work legislation that would help publishers negotiate payments with Facebook and Google. News outlets want Google and Facebook to pay for stories that are posted on their platforms. Facebook was criticized for the Australia ban after it also temporarily cut access to government pages, pandemic information and emergency services on the platform.

According to the Associated Press, "Governments in Europe and Australia are increasingly sympathetic to this point of view." The two tech giants absorb the majority of US digital advertising dollars, which has hurt publishers revenue streams.

Google has already signed content licensing deals with Australian media companies, and said the company has deals in place with more than 50 publishers in the country and over 500 more globally. The company announced in October that it would pay publishers $1 billion over the next three years.