Facebook says it will pay $1 billion over three years to news industry

Facebook, following in Google’s footsteps, says it plans to invest $1 billion to “support the news industry” over the next three years.

The social networking giant, which has been tussling with Australia over a law that would make social platforms pay news organisations, said it has invested $600 million since 2018 in news.

Google said in October that it would pay publishers $1 billion over the next three years.

News companies want Google and Facebook to pay for the news that appears on their platforms. Governments in Europe and Australia are increasingly sympathetic to this point of view. The two tech companies suck up the majority of US digital advertising dollars, which, among other problems, has hurt publishers.