Facebook Stops Showing Australian Content, Even From Government Sites

Today will become a day to remember for many Australians as they wake up to find numerous links in their News Feeds, post history, and favorite new sites are all gone.

True to its threat, Facebook has blocked users from Australia from viewing or sharing news content on its platform. Previously, the country’s government had pressured the tech giants to pay for each shared link of the Australian news organization.

The proposed legislation was made for both Facebook and Google. Similar to Facebook, Google also threatened to withdraw from Australia. However, in the end, both sides eventually reached agreements with dozens of news sites to pay for their content through Google’s News Showcase.

Not only the links from news sites, but the Facebook ban also affects many other Australian organizations.

Government websites such as the Meteorological Bureau, State Governments, Health Agencies, satirical news sites, organizations including the Australian Trade Union Council, and literary journals were also affected by the ban.

The loss of such an important emergency information sharing platform is extremely serious as there are many Australians living in areas that have extreme weather or can be hit with natural disasters. Now, government emergency and weather services will no longer be able to send information directly to Facebook users to mitigate the impact of these events.

The ban even affects politicians. In Western Australia, when the early voting for the state election is about to start, the fan page of Zak Kirkup, a running politician, was unable to share any information. However, his competitor, Mark McGowan seemed to be unaffected.

However, according to Facebook, the ban will not affect Government’s fan pages. It only restricts Australian users from viewing or sharing news from international and local news sites. Fan pages that were accidentally got hit by the ban will soon be restored.

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