facebook is blocking cyclone warnings in Australia!! reported one hour ago, the cyclone is due to hit the coast on Friday

Facebook searches for Cyclone Alfred were blocked for containing content breaching 'community standards' Social media giant Meta blocked or hid Facebook search results for "Cyclone Alfred" ahead of the tropical storm bearing down on Australia's east coast.

The platform is a key communication channel for emergency coverage in Australia and is used to help broadcast evacuation orders and other updates to residents during a crisis.

Tropical Cyclone Alfred is expected to make landfall between the Gold Coast and southern parts of Wide Bay region as early as Thursday evening as a category two cyclone.

It is forecast to bring destructive winds and the risk of life-threatening flooding.

According to Meta's own data, more than 300,000 accounts and pages on Facebook are posting about Cyclone Alfred. However, users who tried to learn more about it using the search term on the social media platform were coming up with empty or non-related results.

ABC NEWS Verify found the terms "Cyclone Alfred" led to a nearly blank page with a link to the "Climate Science Centre".

This hub contains general information and statistics about climate change but nothing about the impending cyclone.

Searches for the hashtag #cyclonealfred led to a blank page with an explanation: "Posts with cyclonealfred are temporarily hidden here. Some content in those posts goes against our Community Standards."

More advanced searches leveraging Facebook's native programming language (Base64) to extract specific keywords also had no results. (read on)