Meta is pulling plug for news on Instagram and Facebook in Canada, as the latter has passed its much-awaited Online News Act finally.
This legislation would force companies like Meta and Google to pay the news publications a sum, for having their links shared on their platform. And both the companies are against this thought already, with Meta threatening to remove news from its platform altogether of Canada passes the bill. And since it did anyway, Meta too stood on its word.
Meta Pulling Off News in Canada
Meta finally did what it’s been threatening to do for a long – to cut off news content on its platforms in the Canada, if the country passes its Online News Act. To the unknown, Canada’s Online News Act (Bill C-18) is a law that forces the online intermediaries (like Google and Meta) to pay news publishers, since they earn engagement and revenue from their content.
This law was the result of losses garnered by Canadian news publishers over two decades, which is partially linked to the growth of social media. And as the Canadian Parliament sided with them, and passed the bill on Thursday, Meta did what it threatened earlier – to pull the news content from its platforms in Canada.
“We have repeatedly shared that in order to comply with Bill C-18, passed today in Parliament, content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, will no longer be available to people accessing our platforms in Canada.”
Though Meta said it’s been working on a software-based solution to Canada’s Online News Act, it may have not been fruitful or ready by now. This was not the first time Meta has done so. In 2021, the company has pulled the plug for news channels and content on Facebook and Instagram in Australia, after the country enacted a similar law.
Assuring that only a small percentage of users in Canada are affected by this change, Meta says no other features on Facebook and Instagram are impacted. Google, which would also be affected by this act, has not yet made any announcements.
