Beautiful Virgin Islands

Sunday, Jul 27, 2025

Facebook in Australia: What happened after news was blocked?

Facebook in Australia: What happened after news was blocked?

Critics of Facebook say the company's ban on news appearing on its platform in Australia has made it more difficult for people to access reliable sources - and increased the influence of bad and misleading information.

But is there any evidence of this since the ban was imposed on Thursday?

Unintended consequences


It quickly became clear that one effect of the tech giant's move was that in addition to news providers, emergency services were also being blocked.

Some Australian government health-department and emergency-services pages found that their Facebook accounts had been affected.

They were later restored after Facebook was notified.


Welfare groups such as Women's Health Tasmania also faced difficulties.


"We stream physical activity classes through Facebook," says Jo Flanagan, the group's chief executive. "We push public-health-generated Covid updates.

"Clients use messages on Facebook to contact us when they don't have phone credit. It was very disruptive."

The page is now working again.

Will Easton, managing director of Facebook Australia, said: "Pages such as government, public-safety and education pages should not be impacted by this announcement.

"We apologise to any pages that were inadvertently impacted."

The day after the ban, we checked some of the pages that had faced problems, including a satirical-news site, a women's legal-services page, and a weather-forecasting platform. They had all been reactivated.

Facebook says it's working to restore other sites that have also been blocked inadvertently.

Has bad information increased?


We can't give a definitive answer to this for all Facebook users in Australia.

But we've done some digging with data-analysis tool CrowdTangle, itself part of the Facebook family of online products.

Using CrowdTangle, it's possible to look at the most popular Facebook posts related to a particular topic over a given time in a given country - it therefore gives you a pretty good idea what's been shared on that subject.

In one example, we looked at Facebook posts from pages in Australia related to Covid-19 and vaccines over two 24-hour periods - before and after the ban was imposed.

We found:

*  In four separate searches before the ban, the overwhelming majority of the top 20 performing posts and links came from verified pages of well-known media organisations, government and public-health bodies - only one or two posts with potentially misleading content.

*  After the ban, the same searches revealed up to five posts containing misleading content about Covid-19 or vaccines

*  After the ban, a search for posts with links to external websites led us to content from alternative- or holistic-medicine pages, some expressing anti-vaccine views. These pages weren't classified as "news", and following the ban they could still be accessed via Facebook.

Links to some websites promoting inaccurate claims about the pandemic still work in Australia ("False" label added to image for clarification)

Facebook has responded to its critics by saying its commitment to combating misinformation has not changed.

"We are directing people to authoritative health information and notify them of new updates via our Covid-19 Information Centre," it says.

"We're also continuing our third-party fact-checking partnerships with AAP (Australian Associated Press) and AFP (Agence France-Press), who review content and debunk false claims online."

However, Peter Bodkin, editor of the AAP fact-checking team, says his news organisation's content is being restricted. The AAP can still rate and label posts on Facebook and tack on links to reliable AAP stories, but users cannot share the site's articles themselves.

"It seems like a terrible outcome, to state the obvious," he says.


Fact-checking sites are, of course, accessible without any need to go through Facebook.

However, Russell Skelton, of ABC's (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) fact-checking project with RMIT University, points out that the ban affects precisely the audience that fact-checkers want to reach.

"Some 11 million-plus Australians use Facebook as their primary source of news," he says.

"Facebook's action has certainly prevented us from engaging with a more diverse audience who do not come to the ABC news website for their information."


Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Deputy attorney general's second day of meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell has concluded
Controversial March in Switzerland Features Men Dressed in Nazi Uniforms
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
Thai Civilian Death Toll Rises to 12 in Cambodian Cross-Border Attacks
TSUNAMI: Trump Just Crossed the Rubicon—And There’s No Turning Back
Over 120 Criminal Cases Dismissed in Boston Amid Public Defender Shortage
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
Trump Announces $550 Billion Japanese Investment and New Trade Agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
×