Facebook’s abrupt decision to stop Australians from sharing news on its site, and stripping the pages of domestic and foreign news outlets, also erased several state government and emergency department accounts last week.
The standoff was over Australia's proposal requiring social media platforms to pay for links to news content.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said the company has since temporarily friended them again.
Technology expert, Karaitiana Taiuru says that this new policy is affecting Māori living in Australia by stopping them from being informed of important news here in Aotearoa.
"For example, the other day I saw the regional council was selling abandoned land and it was most likely Māori land or at least Māori owners.
"So how would whānau in Australia get to see that and be involved.... there's a whole range of different issues there," Taiuru says..