Facebook has said that it will block both local and international news from being shared on its platforms in Austrlia if new legislation is passed.
The new rules would require technology companies such as Facebook and Google to pay publishers such as news organisations for content.
The proposed legislation would allow news companies to bargain either individually or collectively with Google and Facebook about payment for inclusion of news content on its services.
It seeks to address the fundamental bargaining power imbalance between Australian news media businesses and major digital platforms, according to its proponents.
Facebook argues that the law seeks to regulate every aspect of how tech companies do business with news publishers, that publishers voluntarily place content on their platforms, and that news represents a fraction of what people see in their News Feed.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission which is proposing the law, says that over one-third of Facebook users reported using the social media site to access news.
It also says that Google placed a Top Stories carousel of headlines and snippets in response to up to 14 per cent of search queries, and therefore argues that both companies value and benefit from surfacing news content.
Google published an open letter about the law, which claimed that it would dramatically worse Google Search and YouTube, could lead to your data being handed over to big news businesses, and would put the free services you use at risk in Australia.
In the UK, people spend a third of their time using platforms owned by either Google, such as YouTube, or Facebook, such as Instagram.