Meta began blocking Canadians’ access to media content on Facebook and Instagram on Tuesday, August 1, in response to a new law forcing digital giants to pay publishers.
Links and content posted by Canadian and foreign media “will no longer be visible to people in Canada,” Meta said, stressing that the measure must be fully implemented in the “coming weeks.”
On social media, several Canadians shared screenshots on Tuesday showing inaccessible media accounts. Content shared by Radio-Canada on one of its Facebook pages was blocked minutes after it was posted, the public broadcaster said.
Passed in June, C-18 Online Information Act is modeled after a similar measure introduced in Australia in 2021 and aims to support a struggling Canadian media sector. It obliges digital giants to enter into fair trade agreements with local media for the content broadcast on their platforms, under penalty of having to resort to binding arbitration.
“Irresponsible” decision
According to a parliamentary report published in October 2022, the legislation could allow Canadian newspapers to receive around 330 million Canadian dollars (226 million euros) per year.
The parent company of Facebook and Instagram maintains that the law “is based on the erroneous idea that Meta benefits unfairly from the news content shared on its platforms, when it is quite the opposite”.
According to this American giant, the media use Facebook and Instagram voluntarily to “increase their readership and increase their profits”, knowing that “it is not the news that drives people to use our platforms”.
New Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge called the move “irresponsible,” noting that 80% of all online ad revenue in Canada goes to Meta and Google.
“A free and independent press is fundamental to our democracy,” the minister added, pointing out that other countries are considering imposing similar laws “to address the same challenges.”
For its part, Google plans to adopt a similar measure when the law “takes effect” in a few months, when several countries are watching closely the standoff between Ottawa and the giants of Silicon Valley.
