18 February 2021

Overnight, Facebook implemented restrictions which prevents Australians from viewing or sharing news content.

Sport Australia is aware that a number of national sporting organisations (NSOs), local sporting clubs and groups have been impacted by this change with Facebook restricting access to posts from several pages.

Affected organisations should have received a notification to their page from Facebook, which allows them to appeal the blanket ban.

Facebook has begun restoring a number of pages this afternoon, so we hope your organisations are not impacted for too much longer.

In the meantime, from a member engagement perspective you might wish to consider using alternative channels such as your website, emails, Twitter, WhatsApp or Instagram which are not impacted at this stage and are still functioning normally. An article is available at https://www.facebook.com/help/2579891418969617/?ref=share, opens in a new tab

Sport Australia will be reviewing these policy changes and will look to prepare guidance for NSOs on how best to respond to these changes, given your strong reliance on digital platforms for engagement.

If you would like to get in touch please contact communications@sportaus.gov.au