Facebook’s ‘ambush’ of Australian sites could place people in danger, experts say

“We haven’t seen Facebook behave in this way before, to ambush a whole nation effectively,” she said.

“Maybe Facebook is running an experiment to see what occurs when they ban these news links as defined by their algorithms.”

Professor Kelly said she believed Facebook would be in a “world of pain” as it tried to “fix” the pages of organisations caught in the crossfire of its stoush with the government, and it may require brand repair to combat user backlash.

Among the other organisations banned were TransLink, Brisbane City Council, the Bureau of Meteorology, Energex and RACQ.

Domestic violence groups DVConnect, 1800RESPECT and the Centre Against Domestic Abuse also had their Facebook posts hidden, as did charity Small…