Queensland Health has commented on the withdrawal of Facebook’s newsfeed from its Australia subscribers, saying Facebook is not the only way the Agency reaches people.
Executive Director of Queensland Health’s Strategic Communications Branch, Robert Hoge said the Department was in the process of rolling out the first phase of its COVID-19 vaccine program.
He said social media was a key tool with which to communicate this information.
“We have really significant reach through our website, Twitter and LinkedIn,” Mr Hoge said.
“We encourage Queenslanders who need information to check out our website.”
He said the Queensland Health website was up-to-date with all relevant COVID-19 cases and relevant COVID-19 information.
“I applaud Facebook for taking action against anti-vaxxers, Pete Evans and other peddlers of harmful views and conspiracies. However they got this one wrong,” Mr Hoge said.
“While our social media platforms have a better reach than many news services, and are more reliable, we are in fact not a news service.”
He said Queensland Health had grown its Facebook audience to about 600,000 followers over the past five years.
“At any given time of the year, we use social media to alert Queenslanders to emergencies ranging from COVID-19, influenza and other infectious disease outbreaks to health advice relating to bushfire smoke, heatwaves, and storms and flooding,” Mr Hoge said.
“Every day, we engage Queenslanders on a host of timely health matters including nutrition, physical activity, mental health and general wellbeing.”
He said that in January alone Queensland Health’s content was seen 65,680,207 times, received 6,448,305 engagements and had 83,867 clicks.
