Facebook's botched Australia news ban hits health departments, charities and its own pages

Social media company's ban on sharing news has also affected dozens of government, not-for-profit and community pages

The Bureau of Meteorology, state health departments, the Western Australian opposition leader, charities and Facebook itself are among those to have been hit by Facebook's ban on news in Australia.

On Thursday morning Facebook began preventing Australian news sites from posting, while also stopping Australian users from sharing or viewing content from any news outlets, both Australian and international.