From the Bureau of Meteorology to Queensland Health and even charities: How Facebook’s news ban endangers lives by cutting you off from vital helplines and information on Covid and bushfires
- Vital emergency services have been caught in crossfire of Facebook news ban
- Official accounts for Queensland, SA and ACT Health pages stripped of content
- Posts from the Bureau of Meteorology and helpline 1800Respect also removed
Vital emergency services have been caught in the crossfire of Facebook’s Australian news ban – cutting off communities from information about Covid-19, bushfires and domestic violence helplines.
Official government pages on the social media platform including the Queensland, South Australia and ACT Health pages and Fire and Rescue NSW have gone down – as have posts from the Bureau of Meteorology.
Westpac and Careflight’s official rescue helicopter pages have also been blocked.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s posts have been removed from Facebook after the social media giant blocked all content from Australian news outlets
The Queensland, South Australia and ACT Health pages have all had their posts removed as of Thursday morning
A BoM spokesman said they had contacted Facebook to get their posts reinstated.
SA Health’s Twitter and Instagram pages are unaffected.
‘Our website remains active,’ a spokesman for the health service said.
Vital Australian emergency services have been banned as part of the changes. Facebook from Thursday morning will no longer allow people in Australia to read or share news on its platform, the media giant has said
‘You can follow our Instagram and Twitter for your health news. SA Health has contacted Facebook to rectify this issue.’
Westpac Rescue Helicopter CEO Richard Jones said there would be serious consequences if the service couldn’t communicate with its communities on Facebook.
‘I couldn’t comment on the impacts yet but if we were unable to talk to our communities that would be devastating,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
More to follow
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