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Australians woke to empty news feeds on their Facebook pages on Thursday after the social media platform
blocked all media content in a surprise and dramatic escalation of a dispute with the government over paying for content.
The move was swiftly criticised by news producers, politicians and human rights advocates, particularly when it became clear that official health pages, emergency safety warnings and welfare networks had all been scrubbed from the site, along with news. Facebook was wrong, Facebook s actions were unnecessary, they were heavy-handed, and they will damage its reputation here in Australia, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told a televised news conference.
Epic Games founder and chief executive Tim Sweeney said Apple s control of its platform had tilted the level playing field. The 30 per cent they charge as their app tax, they can make it 50 per cent or 90 per cent or 100 per cent. Under their theory of how these markets are structured, they have every right to do that, he told reporters. Epic is not asking any court or regulator to change this 30 per cent to some other number, only to restore competition on IOS, he said, referring to Apple s mobile operating system.
The company also accused Apple of barring rivals from launching their own gaming subscription service on its platform by preventing them from bundling several games together, even though its own Apple Arcade service does that.
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As a business reporter, I write about small businesses opening and closing, manufacturing, food and drink, labor issues and economic data. I particularly love writing about the impact of state and federal policy on local businesses. I also do some education reporting, covering colleges in southeastern Connecticut and regional K-12 issues.
Erica Moser
As a business reporter, I write about small businesses opening and closing, manufacturing, food and drink, labor issues and economic data. I particularly love writing about the impact of state and federal policy on local businesses. I also do some education reporting, covering colleges in southeastern Connecticut and regional K-12 issues.