What is happening? Facebook blocks Australians from viewing news
Facebook's latest decision has rocked Australia after the social media giant restricted publishers and people in Australia from sharing or viewing local and international news content.
Why is this happening?
Facebook's decision is in response to Australia's proposed new Media Bargaining law, which requires tech companies to pay for news content.
“The proposed law fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content,” Facebook said in a statement shared on Thursday morning.
“It has left us facing a stark choice: attempt to comply with a law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or stop allowing news content on our services in Australia. With a heavy heart, we are choosing the latter.”
Facebook said they tried to work with the Federal Government over three years to try and come to an agreement that would be beneficial for both digital platforms and news organisations.
“Unfortunately this legislation does not do that. Instead it seeks to penalise Facebook for content it didn’t take or ask for.”
You can read Facebook’s full statement here.
What does this mean?
From Thursday, Aussies will have woken up to a drastically different news feed.
Australians have been banned from viewing news stories, both local and international, and major broadcasters and news outlets have been restricted from posting on the platform as well.
What happens now?
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Read more about how people can appeal by clicking directly on the notification on their Page which will bring them to the Facebook Help Centre & appeal form.