Facebook news ban hits emergency services and government health departments
Facebook has blocked a number of major Australian government health pages as part of its decision to ban news publishers in response to the Morrison government’s proposed media bargaining laws.
The Queensland, South Australian and ACT Health Facebook pages have been wiped, leaving Australians without access to health information about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Large corporations, charities, and peak sporting bodies also have been affected by the tech titan’s decision.
Major emergency services including the Bureau of Meteorology and Fire and Rescue NSW headline the government agencies caught up in Facebook’s move.
Several Sydney local health district pages are blocked, including Sydney Local Health District and Western Sydney Health.
Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital and St Vincent’s Hospital have been stripped of their content.
But there is an uneven spread of pages that are blocked and those still live, with St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney unaffected.
NSW Health’s Facebook page remains live while the health departments in South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT are blocked.
The pages of sports bodies like Cricket Australia, Rugby Australia, and sports streaming services like Optus Sport and Foxtel have also been impacted. Electricity company AGL and retailer Harvey Norman are others whose pages are down.
Surf Life Saving Australia, the Medical Journal of Australia, Women NSW and Victoria’s Department of Education and Training also cannot be viewed.
The pages for charities and not-for-profit organisations including Human Rights Watch, Oxfam, Save the Children, Diversity Council Australia, the Australian Council of Social Service and MS Research Australia also were blank.
Even the tech giant’s own Facebook page has been impacted by the ban.
A spokeswoman for Fire and Rescue NSW said the agency “has contacted Facebook and requested our public content be restored as soon as possible”.
An ACT Health spokeswoman said: “The ACT government account is verified by Facebook and we have contacted them to rectify the situation.”
Harvey Norman declined to comment.
More to come
Josh Dye is a news reporter with The Sydney Morning Herald.
Amelia McGuire is a producer at The Sydney Morning Herald.