Facebook didn’t just shut down Australian news sites, it shut down government agency pages: Hospitals, Fire & Rescue, Bureau of Meteorology, just hours after Zuckerberg spoke to our Govt & without warning. If a foreign government did this(e.g China), it would be called terrorism.
— Claire Lehmann ??? (@clairlemon) February 18, 2021
Just a private company, controlling chokepoints of vital information and shutting them down when they're trying to intimidate a country's government. pic.twitter.com/7J0yow0dGN
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) February 18, 2021
Can everyone test something for me please? This is gonna sound sus, but could you go to Facebook and try to share The Shot's article from today?
— David Milner (@DaveMilbo) February 18, 2021
I'm trying to work out if we have an accidental Facebook media monopoly in Australia, because I could totally make that work.
It’s not just news pages, @BOM_au has disappeared from Facebook pic.twitter.com/8SV1TYLLdD
— Monte Bovill (@MonteBovill) February 17, 2021
So @Facebook has blocked access to our website. We are not a news organisation. Australian workers can not now find out about their rights at work via @Facebook. This is disgraceful & needs to be reversed immediately pic.twitter.com/588Qf1JbuD
— Sally McManus (@sallymcmanus) February 17, 2021
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. pic.twitter.com/3v5FfFkCn9
— Sarah Collard (@Sarah_Collard_) February 17, 2021
Facebook's news ban hammer having a lot of collateral damage. pic.twitter.com/mP4pfd3nL5
— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) February 17, 2021
you can't check the weather in australia but you can still spread racist propaganda based on a white nationalist conspiracy theory
— Julia Carrie Wong (@juliacarriew) February 17, 2021
bc that's the facebook we know and love https://t.co/OeqxaIM7eN pic.twitter.com/Q1Zh5aObNd
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. pic.twitter.com/EsUeoKZ2mG
— NATSILS (@NATSILS_) February 18, 2021
The Bureau of Meteorology's Facebook page has been impacted by the sudden Facebook news content restrictions.
— Sussan Ley (@sussanley) February 17, 2021
Weather info is always available at https://t.co/lvBoMZj3Wd and on the #BOM Weather app. @bom_au, @bom_qld, @bom_nsw, @bom_vic, @bom_tas, @bom_sa, @bom_wa @bom_nt
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.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) February 17, 2021
The Morrison Government needs to fix this today.
I have seen some commentators imply that Australians will be better off getting their news elsewhere than Facebook.
— Will Oremus (@WillOremus) February 17, 2021
But banning links to news articles sounds like a recipe for misinformation and conspiracies flourishing with impunity on the platform, no? https://t.co/Jd9Or2tJ4Q
Why do some people seem to think social media platforms are a public service? I don't remember thinking that when I joined Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the rest... https://t.co/InxaWsNyNf
— Simon Horrocks (@sihorrock) February 18, 2021
The Libs whinging today about Facebook, after goading Facebook for months to quit Australia, is like the Brexit voters in the UK whinging they can't get their French Brie anymore
— ???Bee? (@BelindaJones68) February 18, 2021
You made your bed, now lay in it.
How good is an election year @ScottMorrisonMP?
?#auspol #qt
“that’s a nice communications system you have there... be a shame if something happened to it.” —fb, probably https://t.co/EBQUriTETD
— Mar Hicks (@histoftech) February 18, 2021
Funny how @Facebook et al always talk about the need to adjust to local laws, usually as an argument for appeasing dictators in exchange for money. And yet....https://t.co/OHUJ629wVD
— Peter Dahlin (彼得·达林) (@Peterinexile) February 18, 2021
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://t.co/gUrZUAv9Jc
— Julia Carrie Wong (@juliacarriew) February 18, 2021
Hope @Facebook's shocking behaviour in Australia will help more understand why FB's profit-driven attack on humanity must be stopped. We saw it long ago at the @worldwideroar and regularly pay the price for failing to bend the knee. #Facebook https://t.co/7RHQmJYNq7 #Facebook
— Angus Malcolm (@Angus_Malcolm) February 18, 2021
Women fleeing domestic violence need more information not less. The Government needs to explain why this has happened on their watch & what they’re doing to ensure essential DV services are up & running on Facebook again.#auspol https://t.co/3Hxz4u96PY
— Senator Jenny McAllister (@jennymcallister) February 18, 2021
It looks like it's going super well so far: https://t.co/mIDJDsHZZ3
— Kath Albury (@KathAlbury) February 18, 2021
Move fast, they said. Break things, they said! https://t.co/KPoXRSYX3d
— Mike Monteiro? (@monteiro) February 18, 2021
Facebook's botched Australia news ban hits health departments, charities and its own pages https://t.co/NU1BZMt98i
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) February 18, 2021
Civic space shrank before COVID, and now struggles to exist.
— Peter Micek (@lawyerpants) February 18, 2021
Facebook could not have picked a worse time, place, or manner to deplatform NGOs, associations, public services, and news organizations in Australia.@accessnow
demands restoration! https://t.co/gkTrSFlXT9
If you read just one thing about Google, Facebook and Australia, @damiencave lays out the issues well here: https://t.co/p56ZaIV8Lm
— Shira Ovide (@ShiraOvide) February 18, 2021
"Many are outraged but remain divided over what to do" should be Facebook's new tagline. https://t.co/ylUfwIIZpI
— Chris Martin (@ChrisMartin17) February 18, 2021
A good synthesis of the three main ways Australians have responded to Facebook turning off news (and many other types of info): https://t.co/Z82utOddLB
— Clive Thompson (@pomeranian99) February 18, 2021
Facebook crushes competition. Passively participated in genocide. Spreads misinformation. Disturbs elections and the wellbeing of people. Now, this company is willing to bar people from critical information, during a pandemic so they don't pay for news! https://t.co/qZiFvgqDci
— Widlore Mérancourt (@Widlore) February 18, 2021
This story is fucking nuts. Corporate domination of the internet is a disaster https://t.co/aQEIpwhRme
— Maximillian Alvarez (@maximillian_alv) February 18, 2021
Well this is going well. I defer to Facebook’s head of global comms @nick_clegg on the 4D chess moves behind this latest piece of genius pic.twitter.com/cjeagP50Zb
— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) February 18, 2021
If you read just one thing about Google, Facebook and Australia, @damiencave lays out the issues well here: https://t.co/p56ZaIV8Lm
— Shira Ovide (@ShiraOvide) February 18, 2021
For those wondering what a wander around Facebook felt like today in Australia, I tried to capture what disappeared, what stayed, and how Australians (in various camps) felt about the mess. https://t.co/kCn7l4yW1Q
— Damien Cave (@damiencave) February 18, 2021
‘The government's news media bargaining code was always based on a lie -- one devised and disseminated by News Corp -- that big tech platforms steal content and must be made to pay for it’ #auspol #qanda https://t.co/UWgKlNuJER
— ?Denise Shrivell - North Sydney #independentsday (@deniseshrivell) February 18, 2021
Be careful what you wish for: government-mandated theft backfires as tech giant pulls pin. by @BernardKeane #Facebook #auspo #FacebookAustralia #facebooknewsban https://t.co/F6s9aDCJXZ
— Crikey (@crikey_news) February 18, 2021
Bad legislation comes unstuck at hands of "big tech", which retaliates with a move which will enshrine the media monoliths' positions in the landscape whilst killing smaller competitors. It's like Darth Vader v Darth Vader v Darth Vader. Thanks, guys. ?https://t.co/JFHafqM8IS
— Rohan Connolly (@rohan_connolly) February 18, 2021
The government thought it was on a winner with an extortion racket aimed at big tech. That's now backfired disastrously. by @BernardKeane #facebookban #mediacode #facebookhttps://t.co/F6s9aDl8zp
— Crikey (@crikey_news) February 18, 2021
Be careful what you wish for:
— lynlinking (@lynlinking) February 18, 2021
govt-mandated theft backfires as tech giant pulls pin The govt thought it was on a winner with an extortion racket aimed at big tech.That's now backfired disastrously. excerpt Paywalled sorry
https://t.co/JOuuKms8av cc @WgarNews pic.twitter.com/xEOjgESCQ3
"It’s not the way it was intended to be by the government that has stuffed this up so badly, but Mission Accomplished anyway. The rest of us just have to count the cost of yet another rotten media policy driven by the demands of moguls." by @BernardKeane https://t.co/F6s9aDCJXZ
— Crikey (@crikey_news) February 18, 2021
The Big Wreck!
— Deb Kirby — anti fascist (@DuchessFrida) February 18, 2021
Be careful what you wish for: government-mandated theft backfires as tech giant pulls pin.
The government thought it was on a winner with an extortion racket aimed at big tech. That's now backfired disastrously.#auspol #facebook https://t.co/YBBt9T8qMC
Outrage as Facebook blocks access to news content in Australia https://t.co/BveKfTRroo
— ? McSpocky™ ??? #PatriotsVotedBlue (@mcspocky) February 18, 2021
Australian PM's correct. Fb censorship "will only confirm the concerns that an increasing number of countries are expressing about the behavior of big tech companies who think they r bigger than governments and that the rules should not apply 2 them."(1/2)https://t.co/Zl21jA3OYg
— Culture Wars (@CultureWarsMag) February 18, 2021
In general, all authorities should stop using Facebook. Build your own audience on your website and be in control, as Facebook is charging all citizens a hell of a lot from their data. A first step could be not paying FB money to promote your content ? https://t.co/U2TPWJhl71
— Pernille Tranberg (@PernilleT) February 19, 2021
At the very least, this is a PR disaster for Facebook. Where is the tech giant's PR spokesman, Sir Nick Cleggy? https://t.co/AXjEqEBMTa
— Mark Seddon (@MarkSeddon1962) February 18, 2021
Journalist @ginakekea can now post #Australian news on Facebook but @carreondet cannot. I'm guessing #Pacific journalists might have access restored in a piecemeal manner, like #Australian government dept pages.https://t.co/l2w7PZNgTE#tech #media #ICT #socialmedia @newsroom_the
— Dr Amanda H A Watson (@ahawatson) February 18, 2021
#Murdoch news readers always spread his opinions through #SocialMedia like wildfire but #Facebook cure is ridiculous overkill.
— EVERALD COMPTON (@EVERALDATLARGE) February 18, 2021
Facebook blocks health departments, charities and its own pages in botched Australia news ban https://t.co/D4Yw2C6nXS
Our statement regarding Facebook's blocking of NGOs and public agencies amid the "news shutdown" in Australia.
— Javier Pallero (@javierpallero) February 18, 2021
TL;DR blunt measures like these are unacceptable. Backward legislation pleases behemoths at our expense.https://t.co/cF9Mn9NLZA
Facebook wanted to make a point by depriving Australians of access to news on its site if the government was going to make it pay for offering news, but it acted irresponsibly, billing itself as a community bulletin board but removing key community notices https://t.co/WpSVHu36GH pic.twitter.com/2NG1xI9fqw
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) February 18, 2021
Facebook’s New Look in Australia: News and Hospitals Out, Aliens Still In https://t.co/l1eSmEcwuD
— Venkat Ananth (@venkatananth) February 19, 2021
“There’s little love lost for Facebook among the public, especially after it’s ramped up its bully tactics.” https://t.co/Uol8owRTXu
— John Tasioulas (@JTasioulas) February 18, 2021