Former New Zealand Facebook boss slams move to block Australian news

Facebook's shock decision was made in response to a proposed new media bargaining law in Australia. Photo / AP

A former chief executive of Facebook New Zealand and Australia has made a stunning swipe against his former employer, urging users to delete the social network's app.

Stephen Scheeler slammed Mark Zuckerberg's "sad" decision to completely block news links from Aussie websites in the country.

"It shouldn't have happened. But unfortunately, it did," Scheeler told The Australian. "But there's no good answers ... But at Facebook, nobody ever loses their jobs."

Scheeler, who calls himself a "proud ex-Facebooker", question the motives of the tech giant in Australia and suggested the public should be more outraged by the decision to stem the flow of information within its borders.

"Over the years I get more and more exasperated. For Facebook and Mark it's too much about the money, and the power, and not about the good," Scheeler said. "Imagine if a Chinese company, for example, had done this, we would be up in arms. All Australians should be quite alarmed by this."

Users were outraged yesterday after realising Facebook had banned links to the Bureau of Meteorology and several health websites, but officials have reassured they will be reviewing their definitions of what constitutes a news platform.

A Facebook rep told CNBC on Thursday that it would reverse some of the bans.

"The actions we're taking are focused on restricting publishers and people in Australia from sharing or viewing Australian and international news content," the rep said.

"As the law does not provide clear guidance on the definition of news content, we have taken a broad definition in order to respect the law as drafted. However, we will reverse any pages that are inadvertently impacted."