Facebook blocks the Australian entertainment industry in a time of crisis

As of 3:00am this morning, Facebook has restricted AussieTheatre’s ability to communicate with our audience via their platform, crippling our efforts to inform the Australian community about the entertainment issues that matter to us all. 

As some may already be aware, on the 20th of April 2020, the Australian Government asked the ACCC to develop a mandatory code of conduct to address bargaining power imbalances between Australian news media businesses and digital platforms, specifically Google and Facebook, stating that our media outlets should be rightfully paid for unique content Google and Facebook were profiting from. 

At 3am AEST today, Facebook responded and punitively punished all media and journalism outlets in Australia by blocking all pages associated with news and media, and undermining an individuals’ ability to share or view content on our platform.

AussieTheatre has supported Facebook, and cultivated a following of readers over the last 15 years. AussieTheatre has directly paid Facebook for advertising purposes in order to help build a community of like-minded individuals and support the platform. 

With Facebook our main means of communication with our audience; the move is devastating. This is not to mention the amount of time, money, and effort that has been spent cultivating our Facebook community. AussieTheatre is uniquely positioned to support theatre creators across the country in reaching an audience of like-minded individuals with up-to-date news as it breaks. 

We need your help. 

Before Facebook moves to block Australian news from being published on their jointly owned platform Instagram, we would ask you to please join us by signing up to our mailing list here so we can stay in touch and keep you updated on all our new articles.

Please share this message to help us survive.