Facebook has been met with worldwide outrage after taking the bold move of banning all Australian users from viewing any news on its platform. The new restrictions have also seen emergency services having their pages removed overnight.
As of this morning, no Australians can access local – or international – news on their feeds. Because of these rules, Fire and Rescue NSW, Department of Fire and Emergency Services WA, South Australia Health, Queensland Health have all had their pages removed this morning.
Kevin Nguyen from @abcnews has compiled a thread of non news outlets who have been caught in the Facebook ban crossfire, you can review the additions below:
Compiling a thread of non-news organisations caught in the Facebook ban, here.
— Kevin Nguyen (@cog_ink) February 17, 2021
SA Health have also addressed the situation in a tweet.
It appears SA Health has been caught up in the @Facebook restrictions that came into place overnight for Australian news outlets.
Our website remains active. You can follow our Instagram and Twitter for your health news.
SA Health has contacted Facebook to rectify this issue.— SA Health (@SAHealth) February 17, 2021
Bureau of Meterology
NSW Fire and Rescue
Department of Fire and Emergency Services WA
Queensland Health
South Australia Health
Australian Trade Unions
Victorian Council of Social Services
Sacred Heart Mission in Melbourne
Council to Homeless Persons
Mission Australia
Womens’ Legal Service NSW
Victoria Opposition leader Michael O’Brien
WA Opposition Leader MP Zak Kirkup
NSW Police Legacy
UK football teams including Manchester United, Celtic and Chelsea
Bowel Cancer Australia
The strict announcement comes as part of a proposed new Media Bargaining law, which would force social media companies to pay money for the news they feature.
The huge move seems to have even blindsided Australia’s treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
“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,” Mr Frydenberg tweeted.
The monumental move has been met with a lot of criticism. The former CEO of Facebook Australia, Stephen Scheeler, said to Sunrise’s David Koch that Australians ‘should be alarmed’.
“I’m not inside Facebook anymore, Kochie”, he told the host. “But I would guess that the problem is they can’t come to the right commercial terms they want here in Australia with the big publishers.”
“They [Facebook] therefore tried to scare the horses here by saying ”here’s what we’re going to do if the government doesn’t back down.'”
He continued: “Imagine if a Chinese company for example had done this… We would be up in arms.”
“I think this isn’t a small thing. All Australians should be quite alarmed by this and it shows why tech has so much power and why we need to regulate them. This is another example of why we can’t stand still.”
The reaction from the general population is similarly upset.
“The organisations finding they can’t post on Facebook clearly go far beyond news sites. Government and emergency pages, unions, the Bureau of Meteorology. Presumably Facebook will have to make changes but this is an historic act of censorship,” posted on user on Twitter.
“Considering that Facebook has restricted public emergency and health pages…. how will that affect information on the vaccine and rollout? This ban is going far further than expected. This is critical,” posted Josh Butler.
The organisations finding they can’t post on Facebook clearly go far beyond news sites. Government and emergency pages, unions, the Bureau of Meteorology. Presumably Facebook will have to make changes but this is an historic act of censorship
— Max Chalmers (@maxchalm) February 17, 2021
Considering that Facebook has restricted public emergency and health pages…. how will that affect information on the vaccine and rollout? This ban is going far further than expected. This is critical
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) February 17, 2021
