Opinion: Facebook is well within its rights to ban news content

A funny thing happened this morning in Australia: millions of people were cut off from vital sources of information.

According to Facebook, only around four per cent of all content viewed on the site’s news feed by Australians is journalism. But for many who are staying away from shops or have shunned physical newspapers, the morning scroll through Facebook was their main way of keeping up to date with the news. Globally, around one in four inbound visitors to news websites come through social media platforms like Facebook.

The ban on news content was put into force by Facebook after testy, months-long bickering with politicians in Australia over a planned levy on linking to journalism. Politicians, having seen the free press routed by the rise of online advertising, which takes a vital funding source away from newspapers, decided it was time for the two biggest offenders – Facebook and Google – to pay something back.