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As nations, we contain multitudes. The US fights Canada r.e. lumber, but at the same time cooperates across a broad range of other aspects of international relations. Australia being a strategic partner in many respects does not preclude trade disputes when it comes to their laws as they impact Facebook.

[akst]

I'm not suggesting allied nations cannot have disagreements & voice them with each other, I'm saying it's unlikely for the US to "retaliate" against Australia like this, when something like this can be better resolved with peaceful cooperative diplomacy.

Again, in this case we're talking hypotheticals with Facebook pulling out of Australia, as they've only said they would stop showing news. It's not like Facebook would suddenly be unable to sustain operations in Australia because users cannot share news articles. If anything they're just playing politics to get a better deal for themselves.

If Facebook left Australia, I would because they choose to, not because they were forced to, just like no one is forcing Google to either.