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Facebook on Wednesday announced it has blocked Australians from viewing and sharing news on the platform because of proposed laws in the country to make digital giants pay for journalism.
Australian publishers can continue to publish news content on Facebook, but links and posts cant be viewed or shared by Australian audiences, the U.S.-based company said in a statement.

In the process of blocking news pages, several Australian emergency services were hit by Facebook's local ban on news content Thursday, with pages that warn the public about Covid outbreaks, bushfires and cyclones rendered blank. Fire, health and meteorological services around the country saw problems with their Facebook pages, amid several serious public emergencies.

In the process, they blocked their own Facebook page as well.

Facebook has banned Facebook's own Facebook page pic.twitter.com/bvZGRaO77H— Andrew Brown (@AndrewBrownAU) February 17, 2021

The page now shows a reading “no posts yet” as of Thursday morning, according to News.com AU.

A Facebook spokesperson told News.com AU “any pages that are inadvertently impacted we’ll look to reverse”.

“Government Pages should not be impacted by today’s announcement.
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But Facebook said it “will restrict publishers and people in Australia from sharing or viewing Australian and international news content.” The dominant social network blamed Australia’s proposed law for its decision, and said the law “fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it.”

... All that for just a cat picture!

Several other people reported the same issue and said that within minutes of sharing it, they were cut off from their accounts.

When Varun got in touch with Facebook they re-allowed him on the site without explanation.

"Our team found this was a mistake & have restored your account. We're sorry for the trouble this caused you."

While it may have just been a glitch it is unusual that it happened to so many people. ...

"... Another thought….

A comment prompted another possible reason for my ban – or at least why others are seemingly banned for no apparent reason. I have long suspected Facebook used keywords as part of how they target users for ads. If they are, it would be easy to create a sort of blacklist – words or phrases which, when used, automatically trigger posts being deleted or the author being sentenced to lock-up.

If my blacklist theory is correct, even benign use of a the word or phrase (or the post being deleted by the user as occurred with Tracy per her comment) could lead to a ban unless Facebook’s algorithm was sophisticated enough to read context.

Could one of my posts have run afoul of the list to end up in Facebook jail? Nothing was deleted as I mentioned above, but I guess it’s still possible."

You can get banned from Facebook — permanently. This is how
By Michelle Couch-Friedman | January 9, 2021 | Updated March 31st, 2021
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Beyond the obvious ways to get banned from Facebook, there are a variety of more subtle things that we know can end in the disabling of a user account:

Using a fake name
Although it is not uncommon to see Facebook accounts in nicknames or self-created monikers, this is something that can get an account banned. Using a name other than your legal name is a violation of Facebook’s terms and conditions.
Creating multiple Facebook accounts
If you create more than one Facebook account, you might suddenly find yourself with zero. Facebook allows just one account per person.
“Friending” too many people in a short period
Facebook is always scanning for fake accounts. If your account mimics the patterns of a fake account, you could get banned right along with the phony ones. Friending large numbers of people in a short period can end with your account being shut down.
Liking too many things
This is another signal that an account may not be real and Facebook might disable it.
Posting spammy-type posts
No one likes spam in their newsfeed. If you’re posting it, you’re at risk of having your account flagged.
Posting fake news/ untrue information
We all have friends who repost alerts and memes that contain urban legends or completely untrue information. This behavior can also lead to Facebook disabling your account. All Facebook users should fact check before resharing any posts.
Posting offensive photos or memes
Remember, this also includes posting things through Facebook Messenger. As we’ve seen in this case, the same rules that apply to your public Facebook page apply to anything you send via messenger as well. Facebook monitors it all.
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About the Author
Michelle Couch-Friedman is the executive director of Elliott Advocacy. She is a consumer advocate, writer, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and content strategist, and psychotherapist who spends as much time as possible exploring the world with her family.