Meta will remove legit news from Facebook and Instagram in Canada — but may leave the bad stuff up

Meta had said it would remove news from its platforms in Canada if the country’s Online News Act passed. The bill, which requires big tech companies like Google and Meta to negotiate with publishers over use of their news content on platforms, did indeed pass, and Meta has now followed through on the threat — just as it did in Australia in 2021.

Australia backtracked, leading Facebook to do the same. Now Canada faces the same decision, but on Tuesday Meta announced that it “has begun the process of ending news availability in Canada,” and that the changes “will be implemented for all people accessing Facebook and Instagram in Canada over the course of the next few weeks. We are identifying news outlets based on legislative definitions and guidance from the Online News Act.”

That part about “guidance from the Online News Act” is important, my colleague Josh pointed out, because it’s an additional jab by Meta. Here’s how that act defines eligible news businesses:

The official statements on all the sides are pretty much as you’d expect. “The legislation is based on the incorrect premise that Meta benefits unfairly from news content shared on our platforms, when the reverse is true,” Meta said in its blog post. (When Meta removed news in Australia, traffic to news publishers plummeted.) The head of the trade association News Media Canada said that “Without access to real fact-based news created by real journalists, Facebook will become far less attractive to users and advertisers.”

My post on Meta now blocking news on its platforms in Canada. Despite assurances from the industry it was just a bluff, this outcome was predictable and will result in enormous losses. The government’s empty tough talk can’t mask its epic miscalculation.https://t.co/4fS54ADo9V pic.twitter.com/qEpXMmQzkm

— Michael Geist (@mgeist) August 2, 2023

It is kind of interesting that when Meta and Google did this in Australia there was a lot of noisy outrage, and this time, not so much. (Partly Murdoch having a stake there, I suspect) https://t.co/2gTvIZms3q

— Benedict Evans (@benedictevans) August 1, 2023

But where will all of our parents get their news from? https://t.co/mYcEanhOxr

— Mike Russell (@MIKERUSSELLMMA) August 1, 2023

Photo by Praveen Kumar Nandagiri on Unsplash.