Social media giant Facebook’s decision to ban news on its platform for all Australians from today has seen vital pages publicising information about COVID-19, bushfires and even domestic violence assistance wrongly shut down.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s Facebook page was even banned by Facebook, along with health information pages from the ACT, Queensland and South Australian governments.
The extraordinary decision, being described as “nuclear” by many commentators, is a heavy-handed response to the proposed Media Bargaining Code that would make companies like Facebook and Google negotiate fees with news providers to publish their content.
The Facebook page for 1800 Respect – the national domestic violence and sex assault helpline – has fallen victim to the ban and can no longer share essential information on its social media page.
Westpac and Careflight’s official rescue helicopter pages and NSW Fire and Rescue’s posts have been removed, while dozens of charity pages have also been shut down.
National Homeless Collective CEO and founder, Donna Stolzenberg told Daily Mail Australia today that the action had set the organisation back 30 years.
“It’s devastating,” she said. “This is going to result in a dramatic increase in domestic violence sufferers being left without help and support.”
“We’ve been set back 30 years by this. So many charities will fall apart. We can’t advertise fundraising events or call for volunteers when we need help. We can’t ask for assistance with donations. People can’t reach out to us anymore.
“About 99% of the people we support find us through our Facebook pages. That is literally tens of thousands of people each year.
South Australian Health Minister, Stephen Wade said Facebook’s actions in blocking public health information was “absolutely unacceptable”.
Writing on Twitter, Minister Wade urged Facebook to “immediately reverse this decision”.
Facebook’s action has also resulted in the wrongful page closure of sporting organisations Cricket Australia, Women’s Rugby League, Queensland Rugby League and AFLW.
Union pages for The Australian Council of Trade Unions, and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance were also mistakenly shut down.
Facebook simply says it has taken a “broad definition” of news in carrying out its bullish culling operation today.
“As the law does not provide clear guidance on the definition of news content, we have taken a broad definition in order to respect the law as drafted,” a company spokesperson said.
“However, we will reverse any pages that are inadvertently impacted.”
Former Facebook Australia CEO, Stephen Scheeler (pictured) told Channel 7’s Sunrise host, David Koch that he was “disappointed” with Facebook’s decision.
“I’m not inside Facebook anymore 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,” said Mr Scheeler.
“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’.”
“Imagine if a Chinese company for example had done this – we would be up in arms.”
“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.”
On radio this morning, Communications Minister Paul Fletcher warned that Facebook’s move was likely to increase the amount of disinformation on Facebook.
“There are already questions about the credibility of information and sources on the Facebook platform,” he said on 2GB.
“They’re basically saying to Australians: ‘If you’re looking for reliable news, Facebook is not the place to look for it’.”
Facebook has been widely condemned for allowing pages promoting the likes of China’s communist regime to post unabated, while blocking millions of Australians from accessing reliable news.
