BBC News
By Reality Check and BBC Monitoring
BBC News
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Critics of Facebook say the company s ban on news appearing on its platform in Australia has made it more difficult for people to access reliable sources - and increased the influence of bad and misleading information.
Unintended consequences
It quickly became clear that one effect of the tech giant s move was that in addition to news providers, emergency services were also being blocked.
Some Australian government health-department and emergency-services pages found that their Facebook accounts had been affected.
They were later restored after Facebook was notified.
The DFES Page was impacted by this morning’s changes to #Facebook. After working with the team at Facebook, DFES page visibility has been restored and we are able to continue providing the WA community with vital emergency information. #Phewpic.twitter.com/2Qvp5c4xmM DFES (@dfes wa) February 18, 2021
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