Meta Ending News Access in Canada

Facts

• Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Tuesday announced it is ending access to news for users in Canada in response to the country’s Online News Act.¹
• The Online News Act, which is modeled after an Australian law passed in 2021, was passed in June by Canada to force large social media companies to negotiate with news organizations to license their content and compensate the publishers.²
• Meta started testing its news-limiting capabilities for 5% of its Canadian users in June but said it will be moving out of that phase over the next several weeks.³
• Canadians won’t be able to share or view news articles, reels, or stories posted by publishers and broadcasters, including international outlets.³
• Google also plans to remove news from its platforms in Canada because of the law, known as Bill C-18.⁴
• Google claims the Canadian law is broader than similar legislation in Australia and Europe because it puts a price on news stories when they’re displayed in searches, and also can affect non-news outlets.⁵

Sources: ¹Reuters, ²New York Times, ³CTVNews, ⁴CNN, and ⁵Guardian.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Bloomberg. Canada was warned Meta would do this, yet it still enacted this law without making any changes or asking for input from the social media companies. News content shared on the platforms doesn’t unfairly benefit these companies, and in fact, the news industry gets a greater boost than the government would have you believe. Canada must deal with the consequences of passing this internet-stifling law.
• Narrative B, as provided by TechCrunch. Meta claiming it doesn’t benefit from the sharing of other publishers’ content just does not add up. One can look at how the news industry has been decimated to see that this law is necessary. All Meta must do is bargain with publishers to cut them into the profits, but instead, it has chosen to take its ball and go home.