The move, a reaction to a bill that would force tech companies to pay news providers, blindsided the country - including Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

He is not backing down over the media bargaining code. The government is standing by the proposed law. It passed the lower house of parliament on Wednesday, has broad cross-party support and will be debated again on Thursday.

"The Morrison government's position is very clear - we will legislate this code," Mr Frydenberg said.

The Facebook news shutdown, he said, confirmed the company's immense market power: "These digital giants loom very, very large in our economy and on the digital landscape."

It's not just Australian users who won't be able to see or share news on Facebook: users the world over will not be able to see news shared by Australian news outlets.

There wasn't too much at all to see from Australia this morning after the social media giant hit the big button. It managed to wipe out the pages of all manner of non-news sites - the Bureau of Meteorology, state health departments, charities, support services for domestic violence victims, state legal services ...

With the COVID-19 vaccine rollout still being organised and communicated, the timing was not appreciated.

Australian Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santow suggested the blockages were tantamount to denying people the right of freedom of expression.

"Freedom of expression includes the right to speak and to receive information," he tweeted - on a platform not owned by the Facebook overlords.

We shall forge on. The news will continue to be published - in a variety of forms, on a number of platforms and it will be consumed in just as many diverse ways.

If you switched off because all you heard about was Facebook today, let's hope you didn't miss out on learning that thousands of aged care residents across more than 190 Australian towns and suburbs will be vaccinated against coronavirus in the first week of jabs from Monday; or that not one locally acquired case was reported across the country on Thursday.

There was the two men and real estate agent charged over a $14.7 million 'scam', a cracking read on Tim Bailey, a weatherman you may remember, and a podcast about a mysterious dieback killing the snow gum trees in the Snowy Mountains.

And wait, wouldn't you know it, there's more - check out the links below.

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