Facebook has blocked Australian users from sharing or viewing news content on the platform, causing much alarm over public access to key information.
It comes in response to a proposed law which would make tech giants pay for news content on their platforms.
Australians on Thursday woke up to find that Facebook pages of all local and global news sites were unavailable.
Several government health and emergency pages were also blocked – something Facebook later asserted was a mistake.
Why is Facebook doing this?
Australian authorities had drawn up the laws to “level the playing field” between the tech giants and struggling publishers over profits. Of every A$100 (£56; $77) spent on digital advertising in Australian media these days, A$81 goes to Google and Facebook.
But Facebook said the law left it “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”.
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