Canada no longer able to access news on Meta sites 

Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

#Canada, August 11, 2023 – Canadians have now been blocked from seeing news content across Meta apps including Facebook and Instagram, in the latest escalation of the fight between the social media company and Canadian lawmakers.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp announced on August 1 that the company would be ending news availability for all Canadians in compliance with a new Canadian law, the Online News Act, which has been passed but is not yet in force.  The new legislation requires the tech giant to pay news organizations for their content shared across its platforms. Meta says the move will be permanent.

The ongoing scuffle began in 2022 with the introduction of the law. Meta hit back at the Canadian government, insisting that news content made up a minuscule percentage of the content its users consume and it would not be economically viable to pay for it.

They say news outlets benefit more from sharing content via Meta than the social media company benefits and the Canadian government has forced their hand.

“The legislation is based on the incorrect premise that Meta benefits unfairly from news content shared on our platforms when the reverse is true. News outlets voluntarily share content on Facebook and Instagram to expand their audiences and help their bottom line. In contrast, we know the people using our platforms don’t come to us for news.”

It means no news links or content shared by any news organization locally will be viewable in Canada. Additionally, people in Canada will no longer be able to view or share news content on Facebook and Instagram, including news articles and audio-visual content posted by news outlets.

Magnetic Media has already begun to receive reports from our viewers that our news content is no longer available to them.

Meta had threatened the same action when a similar law was introduced in Australia but the local media and social media company reached a compromise that allowed news agencies to get cash from the companies.

In response, the Canadian government has pulled its advertising from Facebook and Instagram.