Facebook stands accused of blocking Australian hospitals and emergency services website as a negotiating tactic last year. This accusation comes from a whistleblower group who said that the social network owned by Silicon Valley tech giant Meta was deliberately blocking websites a critical time to gain leverage over the Australian government. Facebook was lobbying to weaken a proposed law that required it to pay news providers, when all such new-related content was blocked from its platform in February 2021.
The algorithm also blocked other websites. However, the company told AFP on Friday that it was an accident and that "any suggestion to the contrary is categorically and obviously false."
"We intended to exempt Australian government pages from restrictions in an effort to minimise the impact of this misguided and harmful legislation," a Meta spokesperson said.
"When we were unable to do so as intended due to a technical error, we apologised and worked to correct it."
Whistleblower Aid, a US-based organization, in a report that first appeared in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, said that the site block was actually a Meta ploy in filings with the US Department of Justice and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
A statement from the organisation said in that the five-day blackout of news content providers by Facebook, they had deliberately "overblocked" local governments, health services and other sites that were providing support for vulnerable people. The group also said that their intention was to force the government to weaken the proposed law, AFP reported.
"This wasn't just an example of a corporate actor behaving recklessly," said Whistleblower Aid chief Libby Liu, "Facebook intentionally put lives at risk to protect its bottom line."
Shortly after the blackout, Australia passed a law forcing Facebook to negotiate with news content providers, but politicians watered down some of the most onerous proposals.