Ahead of proposed media law, Facebook bans Australians from sharing or viewing news and all users from sharing and viewing news on Australian news Pages
About FacebookWilliam Easton
Context & Ripple Effects
Facebook had already signaled that it would cut off news sharing if Australia’s proposal passed in its earlier warning to Australian users and news organizations. The move now turns that warning into a live test of how much leverage the platform’s distribution controls provide in a policy dispute.
The restriction’s scope reached beyond publishers: Australian public-health and weather authorities reported posts removed from their feeds, exposing the dependence of public-information channels on Facebook’s news classification and enforcement.
First-order effects
Australian users lose the ability to share or view news, while users everywhere cannot share or view material on Australian news Pages.
Australian public-health, weather, and other authorities have posts removed from Facebook feeds alongside news content, disrupting an existing communication channel.
Second-order effects
The collateral removal of authority posts makes the ban a public-service distribution issue for Australian authorities, not solely a commercial dispute between Facebook and publishers.
Facebook’s action strengthens its negotiating position around the proposed law by demonstrating that it can withdraw news distribution rather than accept the framework as proposed.
Third-order effects
If this bargaining pattern persists, news-payment regulation will be shaped by platforms’ ability to restrict access to news and adjacent public-information content, not just by publisher compensation terms.
The episode points to content-classification decisions becoming a central policy lever for large platforms when national rules target their relationships with news providers.
The trend: Platforms are increasingly using control over news distribution as leverage in disputes over rules governing payment to publishers.
This morning, I had a constructive discussion with Mark Zuckerberg from #Facebook. He raised a few remaining issues with the Government's news media bargaining code and we agreed to continue our conversation to try to find a pathway forward.
@caseybriggs
Casey Briggs on x
Posts have been removed from the Queensland and SA health department Facebook pages https://twitter.com/...
@emilybell
Emily Bell on x
Here is where the rubber hits the road for @facebook and it's civic intentions. (Forget the Oversight Board for one minute). It won't comply with a democratic government law which it doesn't agree with which costs it money - and removes all accredited publishers including PSBs ht…
@caseynewton
Casey Newton on x
Australia's dumb and bad ‘bargaining code’ with platforms is coming soon to a country near you. So we should probably talk about how dumb and bad it is https://www.platformer.news/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@max_fisher
Max Fisher on x
Facebook when its platform is a driving force for genocide vs Facebook when it faces possible regulation https://twitter.com/...
@mikeisaac
Rat King on x
Big news: Hours after Google cut a deal with News Corp, Facebook pulls the trigger and restricts publishers and people from sharing news links in Australia https://about.fb.com/...
@campbell_brown
Campbell Brown on x
We've reluctantly made the decision to restrict the availability of news on Facebook in Australia. Our goal was to find resolution that strengthened collaboration with publishers, but the legislation fails to recognize fundamental relationship between us & news organizations
@mathewi
Mathew Ingram on x
Facebook unleashes the nuclear option in Australia: The company just announced it will block Australian news publishers and Australian users of Facebook from posting, viewing or sharing any news content whatsoever
@maxchalm
Max Chalmers on x
The Facebook pages of Australia's major newspapers right now https://twitter.com/...
@zenjournalist
Andrew MacGregor Marshall on x
The Australian government and media companies said Facebook was destroying their revenue by allowing news to be shared. So Facebook stopped sharing news, and now they are all outraged ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ https://www.platformer.news/ ...
@rshivshankar
Rahul Shivshankar on x
Facebook's action to ‘unfriend’ Australia is undemocratic. All open democracies should unite to take a stand against Facebook's ‘cyber bullying’. https://www.smh.com.au/...
@joshuawells93
Joshua Wells on x
A lot of people are angry at Facebook. But redirect that to your local MP and Scott Morrison. The media laws proposed will further benefit large media outlets who will then put stories under pay walls - kinda like what's happening. Independents are the ones who lose here.
@clairlemon
@clairlemon on x
Australia now recruiting its allies https://www.smh.com.au/...
@jameeljaffer
Jameel Jaffer on x
Facebook's Oversight Board should use its narrow authority over content-moderation decisions to force Facebook to address much more consequential questions relating to platform design. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@katecrawford
Kate Crawford on x
It happened: Facebook just went off the deep end in Australia. They are blocking *all* news content to Australians, and *no* Australian media can post news. This is what showdowns between states and platforms look like. It's deplatforming at scale. https://about.fb.com/...
@emilybell
Emily Bell on x
Facebook's response to Australian news reforms needs to be understood in the following context. It is not a consistently pro-democratic company, and it is not an accountability platform https://about.fb.com/...
@s8mb
Sam Bowman on x
I mean, look at this. “Bringing an entire country to its knees” by, uh, not linking to news articles it was being forced to pay for. This is the kind of feverish nonsense that some sections of the anti-Big Tech world have embraced. It's bananas. https://twitter.com/...