Facebook whistleblowers accused the social network of intentionally blocking Australian government and emergency health official pages last year to influence a proposed law. CNET has obtained and is publishing the whistleblowers' disclosures provided to Congress.

Filed with US and Australian authorities in March and April, the documents describe alleged internal efforts at Facebook to break a February 2021 standoff with the Australian government. Australia was considering a bill that would force online platforms, including Facebook, to pay publishers for news items posted on their sites. Facebook responded to the proposed law by blocking Australians and publishers from sharing or seeing news on the social network. (CNET was among the news publishers affected by this move.)

The whistleblower disclosures, which include redacted passages from internal Facebook communications, allege the news blackout was intentionally broad so that it would prevent access to government and health services pages. At the time, Facebook blamed those mistakes on problems with its computer systems.

The 67-page disclosures, parts of which have been reported by The Wall Street Journal, include Facebook's internal plans to take down "news content" as Australian lawmakers considered voting on the new law. A senior congressional staffer, who requested anonymity because the disclosures haven't been released publicly, provided them to CNET. The whistleblowers aren't named in the disclosures for fear of...

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