Facebook's Australian news ban also blocked links to weather, government services, poetry, and Facebook itself

Australians woke up on Thursday morning to find their news feeds, post history, and favourite news outlets' pages scrubbed of all links to ... well, news.

Facebook followed through on its threat to ban the sharing of news links by and to Australian users, as the country's government moves closer to forcing big tech companies to pay to link media outlets' content.

The proposed news media bargaining code would see tech giants like Google and Facebook having to pay media companies for content that appears on their platforms. While Google initially threatened to pull out of Australia over the law, which has bipartisan support, it instead struck deals with dozens of platforms to pay them for content via its News Showcase. Facebook, in contrast, has chosen to take its bat and ball and go home like a big sulky baby. Read more...