Australian small to medium sized digital publishers have held off publishing news content on their Facebook feeds for 24 hours to force the tech giant to come to the table and negotiate payment deals with them. The 30 media outlets have replaced their news feed with a standardised message including the hashtag #waitingonzuck. The protest comes a year after the Australian federal government passed the News Media Bargaining Code designed to compel Facebook and Google to pay news media outlets for content. After a public, and at times, acrimonious, row over the impending law, both tech giants conceded and began proactively negotiating deals under their own programs, Google Showcase and Facebook News. But the main partners have been larger news media organisations such as News Corp, Seven West Media, Nine, and The Guardian. Smaller publishers claim to have been left out and that the current situation entrenches the larger media players. “The …