Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Friday, Aug 22, 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

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
High-Stakes Trump-Putin Summit on Ukraine Underway in Alaska
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Russia Formally Recognizes Taliban Government in Afghanistan
×