It seems Facebook has been hoisted by its own petard. The tech giant banned news from Australian feeds on Thursday… including its own Facebook Page.
The Facebooks news ban means that Australian users can no longer share or view links from local or international news publishers.
For international Facebook users, it means they cannot share Australian news or content from Australians news Pages.
But as we’re quickly discovering, it’s not just news sites that are being hit by the algorithm.
Satire news sites from Australia and overseas are also being impacted. Facebook Pages for sites like The Betoota Advocate, The Onion and The Chaser are no longer showing posts.
Some retailers are being hit. For example, posts on the Harvey Norman Facebook Page are also now missing:
Even Facebook itself has been banned for Australian users by its own algorithm.
If you’re an Aussie and try heading over to the social media giant’s Facebook page, you will be greeted with, well, nothing:
As we’re in the first few hours of the ban, it remains to be see just how many non-news sites will also be caught up in it.
However, some anti-vaxxer pages are still up and going strong.
What’s going on with the Facebook ban?
This week Facebook announced in a blog post that it would be banning Australians from seeing and sharing news, effective immediately.
This means a few things.
- Australians can’t share or view Australian OR international links from websites that are deemed to be news.
- International Facebook users can’t view or share Australian news links or content from Australians news Pages.
- Australian publishers can’t share or post any kind of content to Facebook Pages.
Facebook has said this is in response to Australia’s proposed Media Bargaining Law. If passed, Google and Facebook would be forced to pay for news content that is shown on their platforms.
Earlier this week the government said it was considering making some big concessions with the Bill — exempting Google Search and Facebook’s newsfeed.
Some news conglomerates such as Seven West Media and Nine Media (which owns Gizmodo) signed deals with Google.
You can read more about how it will effect you here.
The law hasn’t come into effect yet, which means that Facebook could reverse its ban. Time will tell on that one.