Not on my watch: Minister bans Health Department advertising on Facebook

Federal Health Minister tells ‘corporate titans acting as sovereign bullies’: you won’t get away with it, as Facebook row escalates.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook. The company was forced to apologise after removing public health advice pages this week.

Health Minister Greg Hunt says neither his office nor his department will advertise on Facebook after the tech giant blocked Australians from accessing news on its platform.

Facebook was also forced to apologise for temporarily taking down some state public health accounts and those of charities and other government organisations as retaliation for the Morrison government’s media bargaining code, which is due to be legislated within days.

“I spoke to my office to make sure on Thursday that we were not doing that. I will check that my department is not but on my watch, until this issue is resolved, there will not be Facebook advertising,” Mr Hunt said on the ABC’s Insiders program.

“I will reaffirm that with the secretary today but we’ve already done that with my office and I reaffirmed yesterday that there has been none commissioned or instituted since this dispute arose. I’ve got to say basically you have corporate titans acting as sovereign bullies and they won’t get away with it.”

Later on Sunday, Prime MinisterScott Morrison said his government would be using “all the communication mechanisms” available to it, including Facebook, to advertise its COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

Asked by Mr Morrison to comment on the issue, Mr Hunt clarified: “We will continue to provide information (to Australians via Facebook) but what we wouldn’t do in the immediate future is additional paid advertising.”

Facebook has left itself open to class-action lawsuits and could even face prosecution after the pages of hundreds of charities, groups and government agencies were “unconscionably” caught up in the platform’s wiping of Australian news content this week.

Minister for Health Greg Hunt in parliament this week. Picture: Getty

In retaliation to the federal government’s proposed Mandatory News Media Bargaining Code, the tech giant blocked Australian users from accessing news on Thursday morning.

However, many small businesses, support groups, charities and public interest pages like the Bureau of Meteorology and state health departments were also wiped, prompting the former chair of Australia’s competition watchdog to urge the social media juggernaut to be cautious.

Allan Fels, the chair of Public Interest Journalism and the former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said Facebook was not demonstrating their social license to operate.

“It is unconscionable for Facebook to limit access to Australian Government information, be it weather, health or bushfire information,” Professor Fells said in a statement.

“This is not ‘news’, nor content envisaged under the Mandatory News Bargaining Code … (which) seeks to address a significant market power imbalance.

“That is the role of the ACCC and government, to ensure a level playing field.”

Prof Fels told The Daily Telegraph the social media platform could face legal action over its decision.

“Facebook could be liable for breach of unconscionable conduct laws due to the overnight cessation of services to businesses, especially small businesses that largely require Facebook to disseminate their product,” Prof Fels told the Telegraph.

“To (withdraw services) overnight in this fashion could put them in breach of unconscionable conduct laws and could possibly be a class action.”

Additional reporting: Ellen Ransley, NewsWire