Facebook (now known as Meta) has initiated a news content blackout in Canada on both its main platform and Instagram following the passage of the Online News Act by Canadian legislators.
Engadget reports that Facebook has begun blocking news content in Canada, a decision that will affect both domestic and international news organizations. Starting August 1 users in the country will no longer be able to view or share news links or see videos and photos posted by publishers and broadcasters. The change is expected to take a few weeks to be fully implemented across the country.
Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau speaks at a joint press conference (Alberto Pezzali – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
According to a Facebook statement, “News links and content posted by news publishers and broadcasters in Canada will no longer be viewable by people in Canada. We are identifying news outlets based on legislative definitions and guidance from the Online News Act.” The decision also extends to content shared by international news organizations, making them invisible on Facebook and Instagram in Canada.
The move comes in response to the Canadian legislators passing the Online News Act, a law that requires platforms like Facebook and Instagram to negotiate revenue-sharing agreements with news organizations. The legislation aims to address the collapse in advertising revenue that news outlets have struggled with over the last two decades, a problem exacerbated by the growth of online services.
Breitbart News reporter Allum Bokhari previously reported on the bill, stating:
The Canadian equivalent of the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), a bill forcing tech companies to pay off and collude with big media companies, has passed in Canada. As a result, Facebook (now known as Meta) says news content will no longer be available on its main platform and Instagram in the country — and Google is considering a similar approach on its platforms.
The bill, C-18, received royal assent this week after being passed by the Canadian Parliament, still under the control of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party.
Much like the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) in the U.S., a repeatedly failed bill that Senate Democrats are once again trying to revive, the primary goal of C-18 is to force tech companies to prop up the overwhelmingly left-leaning legacy media.
The CBC has highlighted that Facebook and Google together account for approximately 80 percent of digital advertising revenue. In a related move, Google has also announced plans to stop users in Canada from accessing links to news stories across several of its products in response to the legislation.
This is not the first time Facebook has taken such a drastic step. In early 2021, the company stopped users in Australia from sharing news links on Facebook but eventually reached an agreement to pay publishers there for posting news links and snippets.
Read more at Engadget here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan