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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Josh Taylor

Meta refused to remove memes from popular veterans page after pressure from Australia’s defence department

ADF members marching
Australia’s defence department pressured Meta to remove a memes page followed by military veterans and personnel. Photograph: Darren England/AAP

The Australian defence department pressured Meta to remove a popular veterans meme page from Facebook and Instagram as well as dozens of posts – including those referencing the widely used Downfall meme.

Documents released last week by the department under freedom of information laws reveal multiple emails from Defence to Meta since 2019 requesting the removal of posts from the Pineapple Express page. The page is followed by defence veterans and personnel, and has more than 79,000 followers and 62,000 likes.

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