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Facebook's New Look in Australia: News and Hospitals Out, Aliens Still In
Related: Facebook bans news in Australia as fight with government escalates (CNN)
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Source: New York Times
Facebook’s New Look in Australia: News and Hospitals Out, Aliens Still In
The social network’s decision to block journalism rather than pay for it erased more than expected, leaving many outraged and debating what should happen next.
By Damien Cave
Feb. 18, 2021
Updated 5:57 a.m. ET
SYDNEY, Australia — A digitally savvy nation woke up Thursday to a shock on Facebook: The news was gone.
The social media giant had decided to block journalism in Australia rather than pay the companies that produce it under legislation now before Parliament, angering a country of arguers who had grown used to Facebook as a regular forum for politics or culture.
And then Australians discovered it wasn’t just those staples that were missing. Pages for state health departments and emergency services were also wiped clean. The Bureau of Meteorology, providing weather data in the middle of fire season — blank. An opposition candidate running for office in Western Australia, just a few weeks from an election — every message, gone.
Even pages for nonprofits providing information to domestic violence victims fell into the Facebook dragnet, along with those for organizations that work with the poor and vulnerable.
-snip-
More frightening was what remained: pages dedicated to aliens and UFOs; one for a community group called “Say No to Vaccines”; and plenty of conspiracy theories, some falsely linking 5G to infertility, others spreading lies about Bill Gates and the end of the world.
-snip-
The social network’s decision to block journalism rather than pay for it erased more than expected, leaving many outraged and debating what should happen next.
By Damien Cave
Feb. 18, 2021
Updated 5:57 a.m. ET
SYDNEY, Australia — A digitally savvy nation woke up Thursday to a shock on Facebook: The news was gone.
The social media giant had decided to block journalism in Australia rather than pay the companies that produce it under legislation now before Parliament, angering a country of arguers who had grown used to Facebook as a regular forum for politics or culture.
And then Australians discovered it wasn’t just those staples that were missing. Pages for state health departments and emergency services were also wiped clean. The Bureau of Meteorology, providing weather data in the middle of fire season — blank. An opposition candidate running for office in Western Australia, just a few weeks from an election — every message, gone.
Even pages for nonprofits providing information to domestic violence victims fell into the Facebook dragnet, along with those for organizations that work with the poor and vulnerable.
-snip-
More frightening was what remained: pages dedicated to aliens and UFOs; one for a community group called “Say No to Vaccines”; and plenty of conspiracy theories, some falsely linking 5G to infertility, others spreading lies about Bill Gates and the end of the world.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/business/media/facebook-australia-news.html
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