Good morning, and welcome to the FACEBOOK-POCALYPSE.

1. That’s right, folks: Facebook has banned Australian news. For ardent fans of the Business Insider Australia page, we grieve with you. Facebook is now blocking Australian users from seeing, sharing and interacting with news on the site. Moreover, all Facebook users worldwide won’t be able to see news shared by Australian news outlets. Here’s Facebook’s blog post.

2. As no doubt loyal readers of this newsletter, you know why this is. But for the people in the nosebleed seats: Facebook has selected the nuclear option because of Australia’s planned news media bargaining code, which would compel the company (and Google) to come to agreements to pay for news links hosted on their platforms. The government intends to press on with the code, but a tweet this morning from Josh Frydenberg suggests there could be compromises:

3. All of this follows the announcement yesterday that Google has made an agreement with Nine Entertainment Co – owner of Pedestrian Group, which publishes this masthead – to pay for content. The deal, which shakes out to be worth $30 million annually, covers Nine’s content being displayed on Google News Showcase, the tech giant’s new make-good product for the news media.

4. Google also confirmed it had inked a landmark deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. The Wall Street Journal and others will make some content available via Google News. Robert Thomson, Chief Executive of News Corp, said: “I would like to thank Sundar Pichai and his team at Google who have shown a thoughtful commitment to journalism that will resonate in every country. This has been a passionate cause for our company for well over a decade and I am gratified that the terms of trade are changing, not just for News Corp, but for every publisher.”

5. Victoria’s snap lockdown ended as planned at midnight last night, so they are once more freed from the yoke of tyranny. While stay-at-home restrictions will be removed, masks will still be required in all areas where social distancing isn’t possible. The news came after Victoria recorded zero new locally-acquired cases of COVID-19 over Tuesday.

6. It’s reporting season, and there were plenty to dig through yesterday. Coles profits soared thanks to an eating and drinking bonanza produced by the pandemic. It reported a first-half profit of $560 million, up almost 15% on the same period last year. However, while Coles boasted of its growth, it still underperformed when compared to rivals Woolworths and Aldi, analysts say.

7. As for the rest of yesterday’s reporting pack, we’ve summarised some of the big learnings right here. In short: we know that Australians are driving more, dying less and eating in. Rock and roll.

8. Tens of thousands of jobs and billions in economic activity will be at risk without continuing wage subsidies for the live music sector, industry heavyweights say. In an open letter, thousands of signatories called on the federal government to extend JobKeeper, or create a new industry-specific subsidy package. “We are an industry in crisis,” the organisations state.

9. A 2% growth in the number of Australian businesses over 2019-2020 was driven by rideshare businesses, new ABS data suggests. The transport, postal, and warehousing sector was the fastest-growing for the sixth year running. An increasing number of non-employing businesses also suggests an uptick in independent contractors driving in the gig economy.

10. YouTube will begin testing its TikTok competitor Shorts in the US next month. The company announced on Wednesday that a beta of Shorts will appear for users in March. A Google spokeswoman confirmed the beta will be available to everyone, but would not comment on when the feature might graduate to a full release.

BONUS ITEM

Here’s one for ya: Apple is removing the blood from its syringe emoji. The heavy hand of tech censorship comes for us all.

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