Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has called on Meta to rule out that it was testing a feature to block Australian news content on its platforms, after Meta blamed an “error” for the issue.
On Monday morning, Threads users posted that attempts to share Australian news articles resulted in them being shown a prompt that said the “post failed to upload”.
“Interesting … I can’t post links to any Australian news articles/websites here on Threads — I tried 3 diff. media orgs, all failed to load, both App & desktop versions,” posted user @emergencybk.
Crikey was able to replicate this error when attempting to post articles published by Crikey and the ABC. The error did not occur when posting a link to an Australian non-news website like Gumtree, or an international news website like CNN.
A similar error occurs when users try to link to Australian news publications on their Instagram Story, using the link function.
Crikey was able to post Australian news links to both a personal Facebook profile and a page.
Users speculated that the error could be related to the looming fight over the news media bargaining code after Meta refused to renew its previous partnerships with Australian news companies.
When asked earlier this year during a Senate inquiry if Meta would consider banning news on its services like it briefly did in 2021, the company’s regional policy director Mia Garlick said “all options are on the table”.
When Meta banned news in Australia in 2021 and in Canada in 2023, the company made public statements about its decision. No such statement has been made this week, suggesting the errors seen by users are unlikely to be the result of an intentional move.
A Meta spokesperson told Crikey that the issue was caused by an “error” and that it had been resolved.
Yesterday afternoon, Hanson-Young wrote to the company asking them to explain how the glitch had occurred, if it was related to the company testing its ability to block Australian news content, and to guarantee that Australian news would remain on its platforms.
“This apparent ban on Australian news media content is deeply concerning given the ongoing debate in Australia over Meta’s refusal to pay for the public interest journalism you profit from, and your company’s track record of blocking news content in Australia for political purposes,” she wrote in a letter seen by Crikey.
