 |
| The Facebook ban affects sites run by Australian government agencies |
Many Australian government agency Facebook pages appear to be blocked on social media, blocking press releases from users and media organizations across the country.
Twitter users have reported that there are no posts available on the pages of agencies such as the Bureau of Weather Service, Fire and Rescue Services of Western Australia and Queensland Health.
After Facebook shut down, dozens of Australian companies, charities and media outlets expressed their anger on Thursday, and the social media giant demanded that it return its pages, with users increasingly urging them to remove the platform.
After the Media Negotiations Bill has been updated, Australians will no longer be allowed to access news from the Facebook feed. The law requires a company to enter into commercial agreements with media whose links generate traffic to its platform.
Foodbank Australia, one of the many charities involved in the shootout, said Facebook's reaction was unacceptable because when it runs out of food, time matters.
Save the Children said: Charities rely on the platform to communicate with supporters and members, and we also use Facebook as an important donation tool to reach supporters who want to support children.
Facebook resumed its government services page in the afternoon, but many small businesses and community groups remain banned.
Facebook has a high penetration rate in Australia with more than 11 million users out of 25 million users, which accounts for around 24% of ad spend in the country.
"The ban is unlikely to affect government websites," Facebook said in a statement, but acknowledged that the extent of the restriction could be a bit confusing.
A Facebook representative said: Since the law does not provide clear guidelines for identifying the content of messages, we have adopted a broad definition to fit the current form of the law. However, we will revisit any pages that were unintentionally affected.
Some organizations post messages that direct followers to their websites or other platforms (including Twitter).
There are reports that Facebook isn't the only company that has reacted strongly to the proposed law. Google threatened to pull its search engine out of China altogether, but it has since started negotiations with news editors in the country.