Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said his government will not be intimidated by Facebook blocking news feeds to users.
He described the move to "unfriend Australia" as arrogant and disappointing.
Facebook is responding to a proposed law which would make tech giants pay for news content on their platforms.
It says the legislation "fundamentally misunderstands" the relationship between the platform and publishers.
Australians on Thursday woke up to find that Facebook pages of all local and global news sites were unavailable. People outside the country are also unable to read or access any Australian news publications on the platform.
Several government health and emergency pages were also blocked. Facebook later asserted this was a mistake and many of these pages are now back online.
Both Google and Facebook have fought the law, saying it unfairly "penalises" their platforms.
However, in contrast to Facebook, Google has in recent days signed payment deals with major Australian media outlets. Facebook's action came hours after Google agreed to pay Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for content from news sites across its media empire.
What is the response to the ban?
In a statement posted on Facebook, Mr Morrison said that big tech companies might be changing the world but this did not mean they should run it. facebook news ban facebook australia rupert murdoch facebook bans australian news facebook news australia facebook australia news why did facebook ban australian news news facebook facebook ban australian news media bargaining code
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