Facebook blocks smaller Australian publishers following dispute with Australian government. Greek City Times a casualty

Facebook has made good of its threat to remove Australian news content if the Australian government continued to push through with the passage of the proposed News Media Bargaining Code.

The Code will require Mark Zuckerberg’s $528 billion net worth conglomerate to pay for news, and he made it clear that they will not comply by blocking Aussie news on its platform.

Facebook surprised Australian users yesterday when they woke to discover that they can no longer see any news content or links from local publishers.

This means that the American tech company has already taken action even before the disputed news policy could be approved in Australian legislature.

Facebook's move to ban legitimate Australian news from its platform, labelled as a 'dog act against all Australians' by Australian News journalist Joe Hildebrand, means people in Australia can no longer post links to news stories on Facebook.

Outside Australia, meanwhile, no one can post links to Aussie news sources such as Greek City Times.

Whilst Australian media behemoths such as Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, Seven West and Nine Entertainment Co. have managed to broker agreements directly with Google and to continue operations and their monopoly of the news market unscathed, thousand of smaller niche publishers have potentially been destroyed overnight.

The Australian government, nor Facebook, have made these decisions without thought nor care given to the people and families of the smaller publishers, who have worked tirelessly through the past year of COVID-19 with all of its difficulties, only to be now facing this mammoth loss of income and potential destruction of their businesses.

Greek City Times, the largest English speaking lifestyle publisher of Greek Community News in the world outside of Greece, with over 2 million visitors to its website each month, has also fallen victim to this Facebook purge.

Greek City Times have yet to be contacted by either the Australian Government or Facebook with any advice, consultation nor assistance as to what an appropriate course of action could be.

Up until now, Facebook has been a primary means by which to direct the Greek community to the specific news articles of their interest on our website.

Greek City Times is a primary news source for many Greeks as well as expats in Greece and the Greek diaspora all around the world, including those who cannot read Greek.

Greek City Times serves the global Greek community by informing many families whose parents cannot read Greek happenings in English, as well as by providing important Greek Orthodox and Greek Archdiocese news to the community.

For now, Greek City times can only be accessed directly via these channel here, subscribe now:

Free app: https://apps.greekcitytimes.com

Twitter: twitter.com/greekcitytimes

Telegraph: https://t.me/greekcitytimes

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greekcitytimes/

Website: https://greekcitytimes.com/

Other ethnic media groups such as Greek Herald, Kosmos and the Greek-based Kathimerini's English Facebook page have also been amongst those banned in the sweeping move.

As part of the fall out, Australians have also lost access to many health and emergency pages such as Victoria Police, the Bureau of Meteorology, RACW, Bowel Cancer Australia, The Kids' Cancer Project, Queensland Rugby League and Greek Australian welfare group pages including Fronditha Care and The Hellenic Initiative.

A Fronditha Care spokesperson said Facebook's decision "has affected the profiles of many Australian not-for-profit organisations, emergency services and government departments that provide essential services."

Read also: Facebook's 'dog act' agains all Australians

For now, Greek City times can only be accessed directly via these channel here, subscribe now:

Free app: https://apps.greekcitytimes.com

Twitter: twitter.com/greekcitytimes

Telegraph: https://t.me/greekcitytimes

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greekcitytimes/

Website: https://greekcitytimes.com/