The federal government has agreed to amend Australia’s world-first news media bargaining code in response to negotiations with Facebook.

The platform’s contributions to the sustainability of the media industry will now be taken into account, and arbitration will be used as a “last resort”.

A statement released by Josh Frydenberg reported Facebook has advised the government it intends to restore Australian news pages in the coming days.

The statement added the amendments will “strengthen the hand of regional and small publishers in obtaining appropriate remuneration”.

Tech expert Trevor Long from eftm.com joined Bill McDonald to unpack the latest on the Facebook announcement.

“I would suggest the way they are talking, there will be deals done.

“I think one of the things that both the government and Facebook are pointing out is that they want to do deal with large and small publishers.”

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Peter Lewis, director from the Centre of Responsible Technology, told Scott Emerson it appeared to be a “face saver”.

“I always struggled to see the logic in Facebook cutting off a supply of news to its Australian users, because I think ultimately that was going to be self-destructive.

“They built their model on being a ubiquitous social media network where you get everything you want, and if news isn’t there, and anecdotally from people who use Facebook, it would become a barren place.”

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