On Wednesday, Facebook launched a capital strike against the country of Australia.
Rather than continue negotiations with Australia regarding paying for the news content circulating on its platform, Facebook decided to pull up stakes. Within hours, the company announced it would “restrict publishers and people in Australia” from sharing or viewing news content. This restriction was also global — Facebook users the world over would now be prohibited from posting links from Australian news publishers.
In other words, a sovereign national government attempted to assert itself against Facebook. And in response, Facebook canceled the country.