Dozens of small publishers who missed out on a share of Facebook cash have expressed their anger to their audiences.

Instead of Facebook news feeds, almost three dozen of the country’s digital publications blacked out the section as a protest.

A parliamentary inquiry earlier this month learned that the social media giant had knocked back applications under Australia’s media bargaining code from some smaller operators and was declining to engage with others.

There has also been criticism over how recent grant aid was shared out.

Now a number of Australian digital publications have put their news feeds “on hold”, replacing the daily content with a message of apology and a note with the hashtag #waitingonzuck

Whether the protest will have the same impact as when Facebook itself shut down as a protest against the governments then draft negotiating code bill, remains to be seen.

Since the code was introduced, Facebook has tended to sign agreements only with larger publications.

Media companies taking part in the protest include Star Observer, Concrete Playground and Australian Jewish News.