Put lives at risk. That seems to be utter nonsense. There are dozens of other search engines. Use one of those.
Yes, that is a bit of political hyperbole. (Btw, we are talking about Facebook, not Google or any other search engine.)
Perhaps I had better explain for the international audience. In Aust, most state and federal govt departments have webpages to provide info, but also make the same info available on dedicated Facebook pages. We often have bushfires, floods, cyclones etc, and (particularly in relation to bushfires), information needs to be communicated broadly, and very quickly, including where needs to be evacuated, to where, etc. Last summer, while loss of life was pretty low, given the massive nature of bushfires, some deaths were attributed to people getting inconsistent and out of date info. (Info even an hour out of date can be dangerous.) Facebook today blocked the reference to some of the key sites, including the Bureau of Meteorology. Facebook today also blocked all the major Aust news sites. This was all without warning. There is some logic to Facebook blocking Aust news sites, because there will soon be legislation requiring Facebook to pay for Aust news it distributes. There was no logic to blocking various state and federal govt information sites; there was no obligation to pay anything for these.
Of course, Facebook is not essential for the communication of any of this info. It is available directly from the relevant websites.
It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. I can’t see Facebook backing down, and there is absolutely zero chance of Aust Govt backing down, now.
