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Facebook refuses to renew Australian news deals

Jennifer Dudley-NicholsonAAP
Facebook has announced it will not renew commercial deals with Australian news publishers. (Lukas Coch/AAP PHOTOS)
Camera IconFacebook has announced it will not renew commercial deals with Australian news publishers. (Lukas Coch/AAP PHOTOS) Credit: AAP

Facebook's parent company Meta and the Australian government are at loggerheads again after the tech giant announced it would not renew commercial deals with Australian news publishers.

The US company also revealed it planned to remove a dedicated news section from the social media site in Australia and the US next year when the current deals expire.

The announcement on Friday comes three years after Facebook banned all news links from being shared to its platform in Australia, in an action that also removed the pages of charities, health pages, and emergency services.

Federal government ministers blasted Meta's announcement as a "dereliction of its commitment" and said they would seek advice about future action.

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