Shadow Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has raised concerns about the level of misinformation on Facebook – particularly about the COVID-19 vaccine – now all Australian news content has been blocked from the platform.
She said the social media giant’s decision to ban Australian news “has shone a light on the potential for misinformation to proliferate on the internet, which would be very grave at a time when we want Australians to come forward and get vaccinated”.
“Some of the analysis has been very telling both before and after news was switched off, prior to that there was some strong arguments that this could make a very less compelling platform because it would be proliferated by fake news rather than official sources,” Ms Rowland told Sky News.
“And some analysis just in the past couple of days has indicated that has come to fruition in some ways”.
Top figures in the Morrison government announced at the weekend they would withdraw paid Facebook advertisements and posts, with the federal cabinet set to consider a formal advertising ban on the platform.
Ms Rowland said she supported the move, pointing out “there are other mechanisms by which these messages can be gotten out”.
“It is unfortunate that this has come about a time when we are in the midst of a pandemic, it is unfortunate that there are so many people who will unfortunately fall victim not only to misinformation but also to scams,” she said.