Facebook criticized for blocking Australia's health, emergency sites

Australia's Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said it was “wrong” and “unnecessary” for Facebook to block Australian users from all news content — including those from the government — on its platform, CNBC reports.

“Facebook was wrong. Facebook’s actions were unnecessary. They were heavy-handed and they will damage its reputation here in Australia,” Frydenberg said on Thursday.

“Their decision to block Australians’ access to government sites — be they about support through the pandemic, mental health, emergency services, the Bureau of Meteorology — were completely unrelated to the media code, which is yet to pass through the Senate,” he said.

The Australian parliament is expected to pass a new media bill that will require online platforms like Google and Facebook to pay news outlets for displaying and linking to their content.

Facebook’s decision was in contrast to that of Google. The latter on Wednesday said it has agreed on a revenue-sharing deal with Australian media conglomerate News Corp, which owns media outlets including The Wall Street Journal and New York Post.

In addition to pages run by news outlets, several government-backed Australian accounts were also wiped clean by Facebook on Thursday morning, reported Reuters. Government pages affected include those providing advice on the pandemic and bushfire threats, the news agency said.