Facebook news ban impacts emergency services in Australia

Several Australian emergency services reported being hit by Facebook’s ban on sharing news content in the country on Thursday, with pages that carry warnings about COVID-19 outbreaks, bushfires and cyclones all blocked.

Fire, health and meteorological services around the country were experiencing problems with their Facebook pages, which are regularly used to issue emergency warnings in the disaster-prone country.

Environment Minister Sussan Ley tweeted the government’s Bureau of Meteorology’s page “has been impacted by the sudden Facebook news content restrictions”, suggesting the public to visit the website.

Earlier, Facebook announced its move to restrict news content sharing in Australia, refusing to bend to a regulatory push that would force the social giant to share revenue with media outlets.

“The proposed law fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content,” said Facebook’s manager for Australia and New Zealand, William Easton.

“It has left us facing a stark choice: attempt to comply with a law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or stop allowing news content on our services in Australia. With a heavy heart, we are choosing the latter,” he added.