Whistleblowers have alleged that Meta Platforms Inc-owned (NASDAQ:FB) Facebook's act of blocking news pages in Australia was a deliberate negotiating tactic to thwart a potential law, according to The Wall Street Journal.
What Happened: Meta had publicly called the resulting chaos "inadvertent," but the whistleblowers said it was to exert maximum negotiating leverage over the Australian parliament, which was voting for the law that required platforms like Facebook and Alphabet Inc's (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Google to pay news outlets for content.
