Meta protesting a Canadian law blocking news in the region on its platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. The tech firm is at the moment protesting against a Canadian law that obliges it to negotiate with and then pay new agencies and publishers for their content simply by blocking news links that are shared on its platform.
Meta Protesting Canadian Law
Meta has started blocking all news content on both Facebook and Instagram platforms in Canada, which is a change it expects all users in the country and region to see within “the next few weeks.” That is however in response to the Online News Act of the country, which would require tech companies such as Meta and Google to negotiate with as well as pay publishers for their news content.
The blocks in question don’t just apply to news publishers with accounts on the two platforms but also to links that are shared by users. If it is that a Canadian person is friends with someone who lives in Kansas and that Kansan friend in question shares a link on Facebook to, say, this very article, their northerly friend will not be able to view it.
Users Are Starting To Feel the Heat of the Implementations of the Law
On the social media platform, Twitter, which is at the moment rebranding as X, journalists for local Canadian publications such as IndigiNews and The Sarnia Journal spoke out against the change by Meta
Meta refers to this as a “business decision,” stating that it chooses to block news in a bid to comply with the Online News Act. The firm says that the Canadian government based its new legislation “on the incorrect premise that Meta benefits unfairly from news content shared on our platforms,” thus insisting that news organizations actually benefit from the sharing of their information on its platforms and also that people don’t come to Facebook or Instagram for news.
Canadian Ministers Take On the New Development
Minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge in a statement emailed to The Verge, stated that the country will stand its ground as Meta moves forward with its “irresponsible” message to Canada as well as other governments. “Facebook knows they have no obligations under the Act right now,” she stated just before criticizing Meta for blocking “good quality and local news instead of paying their fair share to news organization.”
Meta’s Reaction to the Canadian Government
The company just recently announced that it would make good on threats in taking the extraordinary step when the bill received royal assent back in June, after a brief time testing the change. Google is however planning similar action for local news, which it will reportedly block starting when the law takes effect “no later than 180 days” after the passage of the bill on June 22nd.
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