Facebook will walk back its block on Australian users sharing news on its site after the government agreed to make amendments to the proposed media bargaining laws that would force major tech giants to pay news outlets for their content.
It follows days of negotiations between the government and the social media company, including discussions between Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg.
"Mark Zuckerberg said to me today [restoring pages] will occur in coming days," Mr Frydenberg said.
The code is structured so that if Facebook and Google do not sign commercial deals with traditional media outlets the Treasurer can "designate" them, and force them to pay for access to news content.
The government promised to make further amendments to the code, including giving Facebook more time to strike those deals.
Last week Facebook stopped Australian users from sharing or posting news links in response to the code.
A number of non-news pages were swept up in the ban, including community organisations and the Bureau of Meteorology.
Facebook said in a statement that it was "pleased" the company was able to reach an agreement with the government.
"[We] appreciate the constructive discussions we've had with Treasurer Frydenberg and Minister Fletcher over the past week," it said.
"After further discussions, we are satisfied that the Australian government has agreed to a number of changes and guarantees that address our core concerns about allowing commercial deals that recognise the value our platform provides to publishers relative to the value we receive from them. As a result of these changes, we can now work to further our investment in public interest journalism and restore news on Facebook for Australians in the coming days."
But the company's vice president Campbell Brown said Facebook was retaining its right to take Australian news content down again in the future. (ABC News)
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