Meta's Facebook and Instagram have started blocking news in Canada, preventing its users from accessing news articles and videos.
The latest move of Mark Zuckerberg's tech giant is in response to Canada's Online News Act, which requires tech giants to pay news publishers for their content.
Facebook, Instagram Starts News Ban in Canada
A woman checks her Instagram account as she stands on a street in New York city on October 4, 2021. - Facebook and its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms were hit by a massive outage, impacting potentially tens of millions of people as users flocked to other networks to sound off.
Facebook and Instagram users in Canada woke up to the reality of the news ban, finding their news feeds conspicuously devoid of the latest headlines, breaking stories, and trusted news sources.
As per a report by The Verge, Meta has officially kicked off its news content ban for Facebook and Instagram users in Canada. The recent move is a bold protest against the Canadian law, which obliges tech giants, including Google, to pay news publishers for their content.
The Facebook parent has begun blocking news content, leaving Canadians scrambling to find alternative sources for their daily dose of current affairs and trending topics. The Verge notes that FB and Insta have also blocked news links shared by their users.
According to Reuters, Meta's Head of Public Policy in Canada, Rachel Curran, says, "News outlets voluntarily share content on Facebook and Instagram to expand their audiences and help their bottom line." She further stresses that their users do not "come to us for news."
The Canadian government quickly responded to Meta's recent move, denouncing it as "irresponsible." To be precise, Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge, the person behind the negotiations with the Zuck-led firm, slams the move. She says, "They would rather block their users from accessing good quality and local news instead of paying their fair share to news organizations."
The Heritage Minister declares that they are "going to keep standing our ground" against tech giants like Meta and Google.
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Canada's Online News Acts vs. Tech Giants
This photo illustration taken on March 22, 2018 shows a woman looking at Social Networking applications Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Whatsapp, Twitter, Messenger and Linkedin on a smartphone in Kuala Lumpur.
As Forbes reports, Canada's Online News Act took effect last June 22, compelling tech behemoths to compensate news publishers for their articles and current affairs videos.
However, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone argues that "the law is based on a fundamentally flawed premise." And as such, the Zuck-led company announced that they could only comply with the law by blocking news content for Canadian users.
The Facebook parent previously disclosed that news content only makes up roughly three percent of their users' news feeds. On top of that, the tech behemoth boasted that publishers are earning around $173 million due to their presence on its platforms.
Besides Meta, the search giant Google refuses to adopt the new Canadian law. The tech firm warned that it plans to remove links to news outlets in Canada from its search results in protest of the measure.
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