Facebook has restricted access to news in Australia.
The tech giant says news makes up less than four per cent of what people see in their feeds, but you’ll likely notice a difference when logging into the social network today.
Let’s unpack what we know so far and how we got here.
Download the ABC News app for all the latest.
What just happened?
Basically, there’s no content on the pages of any Australian news outlets. You can go and look for yourself.
That means there will be no more updates from your favourite news organisations in your feed.
If you search for the Facebook pages of (for example) ABC News, the Sydney Morning Herald, the New York Times, and the BBC, you’ll see a blank feed saying “No posts yet”.
If you’re logged off from Facebook and search for individual news pages, you can still see their posts, but won’t be able to interact with them.
It’s not just news organisations — government pages like Queensland Health and the Bureau of Meteorology were restricted this morning, though they have now been restored.
Commercial outlets like Harvey Norman have been wiped, and even Facebook’s own Facebook page is inaccessible.
It’s probably worth noting that this also means there is no more access to live streams of coronavirus press conferences via Facebook.
Logging into Facebook brings up different messages about this change depending on the device you’re on.
If you’re on a desktop, you’ll get a message titled: “The way you share news is changing” and informing you “the posting and sharing of news links from Australian publications is restricted”.
If you’re on a mobile device, you may not have received a message at all.
What am I restricted from doing?
If you try to share news articles to your Facebook friends, on your own Facebook pages, or in Facebook groups — whether you’re on a desktop or mobile — you’ll get an error message.
You won’t be able to view or share Australian or international news content on Facebook, or content from Australian or international news pages.
If you’re overseas — or program an overseas IP address in your VPN — you won’t be able to view or share Australian news content on Facebook or content from Australian news pages.
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Why would they do this? Was there any warning?
Facebook and the Australian government have been in talks for some time, and Facebook had threatened to take today’s actions last September.
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It’s all related to new media bargaining laws, proposed by the government, which would force major tech giants to pay Australian news outlets for their content.
Facebook said the proposed Australian law fundamentally misunderstood the relationship between its platform and publishers who use it to share news content.
It said it faced a “stark choice” between attempting to comply with a law, or banning news content on its services in Australia — and “with a heavy heart” it was choosing the latter.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said he had no warning Facebook would take these actions today, describing them “wrong and heavy handed”.
What about Instagram and other social media sites?
These changes are just affecting Facebook at this stage.