Australian authorities in public health, weather, and other areas say Facebook has removed posts from their feeds following Facebook's news ban
ABCNicholas McElroy
Context & Ripple Effects
When Facebook blocked all news sharing for Australians ahead of the proposed media bargaining code, the block did not stop at publishers: it swept up posts from state bodies running public health, weather, and other essential feeds. The collateral damage was immediate — the same day as the ban, authorities reported that their own pages had gone dark on the platform.
First-order effects
Australians lost access to official health, weather, and safety updates through Facebook precisely when the platform is a default channel for such alerts — the ban's blast radius exceeded its publisher targets from day one.
Second-order effects
The over-blocking sharpened scrutiny of how the code would be enforced and pushed Facebook toward carve-outs, while the harm compounded abroad: in Fiji, where cheap data plans bundle Facebook access, the ban made news sites effectively unaffordable (zero-rated access made the ban acute) — showing one country's regulatory fight propagating through dependent markets.
Third-order effects
If governments conclude platforms cannot be relied on as critical-information infrastructure, expect legal frameworks to harden around platform obligations — a trajectory Australia's judiciary had already signaled by affirming that media companies are liable for comments on their Facebook Pages (the High Court's comment-liability ruling).
The trend: Australia's confrontation with Facebook marks the moment national governments began treating social platforms as regulated infrastructure whose unilateral switches can cut off civic services.
Facebook's news ban hammer having a lot of collateral damage. https://twitter.com/...
@juliacarriew
Julia Carrie Wong on x
Whatever you think of the proposed bill, Facebook's behavior in Australia should be a clarion call to publishers, government agencies, and any organizations with a public interest purpose that it's time to divest from Facebook as a communication platform https://www.theguardian.c…
@picardonhealth
Andr Picard on x
Even for a company that specialises in PR disasters, @Facebook has excelled with its Australian blackout. By turning off news sharing, it has turned attention to its own reckless opaque power, by @EmilyBell https://www.theguardian.com/ ... via @guardian #journalism
@sarah_collard_
Sarah Collard on x
It's not just big news orgs bearing the brunt of the News ban by @Facebook. Smaller Indigenous and community media orgs are too. Vital for getting info out about COVID, telecommunications outages and emergencies to communities. https://twitter.com/...
@zaidjilani
Zaid Jilani on x
Just a private company, controlling chokepoints of vital information and shutting them down when they're trying to intimidate a country's government. https://twitter.com/...
@albomp
Anthony Albanese on x
During a global pandemic, Australians can't access state health departments on Facebook. On a day of flood and fire warnings in Queensland and WA, Australians can't access the Bureau of Meteorology on Facebook. The Morrison Government needs to fix this today.
@natsils_
Natsils on x
We are extremely concerned that NATSILS has been blocked by #FacebookAustralia, so have some of our members. This is a human rights issue, silencing the voices of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people, our representative peak bodies. This is how we connect with community. ht…
@iancarterim
Ian Carter on x
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the drafting of the Australian media code, this has been a terrifying example of Facebook's power - and one it may come to regret. https://twitter.com/...
@jeremyrlent
Jeremy Lent on x
It's not about regulating Facebook, or even just breaking it up. It's become too important as a global human communication network. It needs to be taken away from shareholders & turned into a commons-based utility. Tech should serve humans, not vice versa. https://www.theguardian…