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Australians woke to empty Facebook news feeds on Thursday, after the social media giant blocked all media content in a surprise escalation of a dispute with the government, which could be a test for the future of online publishing worldwide.

The Toronto-based company says Google is sending search queries to its subsidiary YouTube

The shutdowns of malls and restaurants first in March and then in end-November has seriously impacted the trade and hospitality industry but at the same time offered the companies new opportunities for rechanneling greater part of their business to online services.

Ten states on Dec. 16 brought a lawsuit against Google, accusing the search giant of "anti-competitive conduct" in the online advertising industry, including a deal to manipulate sales with rival Facebook.

All Google business services went down globally on 12:00 PM GMT, Gmail, Meets, Calendar, Docs, etc. in addition to Youtube are responding with error code 500.

Google Search and Maps are partially operating, as Google images service from the search-toolbar is down, and searching for a location/address in Maps returns with errors again./adigitalboom.com

Many services from Alphabet Inc, including YouTube, Gmail and Google Drive, were down for thousands of users across the globe on Monday.

The company's video platform did not load for users and had an error message: "Something went wrong…".

Airbnb Inc is laying off 25 percent of its workforce, or nearly 1,900 employees, the home rental startup said on Tuesday, as the Covid-19 pandemic brings global travel to a near standstill.

"Airbnb's business has been hit hard, with revenue this year forecasted to be less than half of what we earned in 2019," founder Brian Chesky said in a memo to employees.

Those who let their properties on the short-term rental market are seeking ways to retain their presence there, having invested time and money in developing what is effectively a new economic activity in response to the decade-long financial crisis in Greece.

Their company, Studio 20 Double D, was ticking along nicely, but then COVID-19 struck and Manole was flooded with job applications and new clients.

"Applications increased by 100 per cent and the number of users doubled," Manole told BIRN.

"Ours is a business that works in a situation like this."

Romania is a global leader in adult live camming.

Turkey's telecommunications watchdog is set to lift its ban on online encyclopedia Wikipedia after the official publication on Jan. 15 of a top court ruling that the more than two-year block was a violation of expression.