Social media conglomerate Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, will end access to news on these social media platforms for all Canadian users before Bill C-18, otherwise known as the Online News Act, comes into force.
Under the law, tech giants like Meta and Google will be forced to pay news outlets for posting journalism on their platforms.
The tech company made the announcement on Thursday, June 22nd, the same day the bill received Royal Assent.
News organizations—backed by the Canadian Liberal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau—have long argued that these companies are making money off their content without offering any recompense.
According to Ottawa, over 470 media outlets in Canada have closed since 2008, and at least one-third of Canadian journalism jobs have disappeared over that same time period. The compensation that news publishers receive from these digital giants is meant to largely go towards the funding of new content to protect the “sustainability of the Canadian news ecosystem,” the government said.
Meta has rejected the arrangement, therefore its Canadian users will be blocked from accessing news by these news publishers.
“We have repeatedly shared that in order to comply with Bill C-18 … content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, will no longer be available to people accessing our platforms in Canada,” Meta said.
It however assured “the millions of Canadians on our platforms that they will always be able to connect with friends and family, grow their businesses and support their local communities.”
In 2021, a similar law had been passed in Australia. While Google and Facebook had also threatened to curtail their services there, both eventually struck deals with Australian media companies, but only after amendments to the legislation were offered.
Earlier this month Meta, in order to comply with the incoming bill, started conducting tests on ending news access for a small percentage of Canadians. Between 1% and 5% of the 24 million Canadians who use Facebook or Instagram were said to be affected.
In a June 1st statement, Meta said the Online News Act is “fundamentally flawed legislation that ignores the realities of how our platforms work, the preferences of the people who use them, and the value we provide news publishers.”
Shortly after, on June 7th, PM Trudeau said bullying tactics would not work with his government.
“The fact that these internet giants would rather cut off Canadians’ access to local news than pay their fair share is a real problem, and now they’re resorting to bullying tactics to try and get their way. It’s not going to work,” Trudeau said.
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, after first introducing the bill in early April last year, then remarked that the “health and future of the news industry—especially local news—are at risk,” and that with it, they were “seeking to address this market imbalance,” and “make sure that the news media and journalists are fairly compensated for their work.”
Canadians, he added, need “reliable and credible information, especially in a time of greater mistrust and disinformation.”
When, later that month, Meta ruled out that Canadians would be able to view and share news on Facebook, Rodriguez reacted by saying he did not expect that would be popular with Canadians.
“They made the same threat in Australia and at the end of the day they stayed,” Rodriguez told reporters. “It wasn’t well received by the Australian people and I don’t think it would be well received by the Canadian people,” he said, adding in French that Meta’s “threat is not making me work faster.”
Following Meta’s latest announcement, Rodriguez tweeted that the government “will engage in a regulatory and implementation process” after the legislation comes into effect. “If the government can’t stand up for Canadians against tech giants, who will?” he added.
Rodriguez has previously stated that the amount of money each publisher receives from these digital giants will be negotiable, as an exact sum has not been defined.
In lieu of a voluntary arrangement between the two, news businesses can enter into a mandatory bargaining process and involve a Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) arbitration panel to arrive at a binding decision.A government spokesperson has said that Rodriguez’ ministry has held meetings with Facebook and Google this week, and is looking forward to further discussions.
