Facebook’s botched Australia news ban hits health departments, charities and its own pages

The Bureau of Meteorology, state health departments, the Western Australian opposition leader, charities and Facebook itself are among those to have been hit by Facebook’s ban on news in Australia.

Facebook's news ban hammer having a lot of collateral damage. pic.twitter.com/mP4pfd3nL5

— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) February 17, 2021

On Thursday morning Facebook began preventing Australian news sites from posting, while also stopping Australian users from sharing or viewing content from any news outlets, both Australian and international.

The social media giant said it made the decision in response to the news media bargaining code currently before the Senate, which would force Facebook and Google to negotiate with news companies for payment for content.

While the ban was only meant to target Australian news publishers, dozens of pages run by key government agencies, community pages, union pages, charity organisations and politicians were also blocked for several hours.

Australia’s main source of weather information, the Bureau of Meteorology, said on Thursday morning that it had been blocked, and was advising users to go to its direct website, app or Twitter page.

Facebook's news ban hammer having a lot of collateral damage. pic.twitter.com/mP4pfd3nL5

— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) February 17, 2021

As Australia prepares to begin the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, state health departments, including SA Health and Queensland Health, were unable to post.$

1800 Respect is gone now too.

That's Australia's main domestic violence phone service. https://t.co/vbMUN6YAFJ pic.twitter.com/HKEl7ySpnJ

— VCOSS (@VCOSS) February 17, 2021

So @Facebook has blocked access to our website. We are not a news organisation. Australian workers can not now find out about their rights at work via @Facebook. This is disgraceful & needs to be reversed immediately pic.twitter.com/588Qf1JbuD

— Sally McManus (@sallymcmanus) February 17, 2021

Facebook's news ban hammer having a lot of collateral damage. pic.twitter.com/mP4pfd3nL5

— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) February 17, 2021

By Josh Taylor – theguardian.com