Canadian media trained audiences to use Facebook. With Meta blocking news, what’s next?
Canadian news publishers haven’t given up hope that Meta will lift a ban on Canadian news, but in the meantime, they’re scrambling to draw audiences directly to them.
Earlier this month, the social media giant began blocking Canadian news on its social media platforms — Facebook and Instagram — in response to Canada’s new Online News Act which passed in June and is expected to take effect by the end of the year.
The law would — in the future — require companies like Meta and Google to pay media outlets for news content they share on their platforms.
The news ban was called “dangerous” this week by wildfire evacuees and “reckless” by the Office of the Heritage Minister while wildfires forced tens of thousands from their homes in B.C and the Northwest Territories. In a social post, Heritage Minsiter Pascale St-Onge called on Meta to reinstate news sharing on Facebook.
News organizations — including CBC/Radio-Canada — have also asked Canada’s Competition Bureau to investigate Meta’s decision to block Canadian news, calling it “anti-competitive.”
“We think there’s a workable solution,” said Paul Deegan, president and CEO of News Media Canada, which represents 570 news publishers across the country.
“What we’re saying to Meta is, ‛The regulations aren’t drafted yet. Pick up a pen. Put down your saber and let’s try to work through this together.'”
Audiences can still reach Canadian digital news directly — by going straight to news sites themselves, or using an app on mobile devices.
But after years of Canadians and news publishers relying on Facebook to connect them, observers are wondering how — and if — the issue can be resolved.
Meta’s decision unsurprising
Meta’s decision to block Canadian news from its digital platforms wasn’t unexpected, since the company had taken similar action in 2021 in Australia when that country proposed a law to pay media companies for stories appearing on their sites.
In that case, Meta and Google struck a deal with the Australian government before the legislation passed, and the company lifted the ban after about a week.
But three weeks into Meta’s ban in Canada, there are no signs of it ending.
“I think the reason that they’re being so much more brutal to Canada is they’re afraid that Canada will show the United States a path forward,” said former Facebook employee-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen in an interview with CBC’s The Sunday Magazine.
“I’m glad that Canada is standing firm because a functioning news ecosystem, a place where newspapers don’t constantly go out of business, is a critical component to any democracy,” Haugen said.
In 2021, Haugen secretly copied a trove of internal Facebook documents before leaving the company, and subsequently had her lawyers file complaints with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that Facebook hides what it knows about the negative effects of its platform.
“Facebook has [pushed publishers out of] the most profitable part of that news ecosystem,” said Haugen.
“They’ve said, ‘We’re going to make all the money and the way we’re going to keep those eyeballs scrolling is by using content from things like Canadian news providers.'”
Haugen said she also worries about how Meta’s algorithms decide what is news and what is not.
“For instance, is [Meta] now giving greater distribution and greater priority to conspiracy sites, to things that we would not consider high quality news sources?” said Haugen.
Should media be compensated for links?
The heart of the dispute is about paying news companies for links, something set out in principle in Bill C-18.
“Canadians expect tech giants to follow the law and pay their fair share to support reliable, fact-based, independent news,” said Heritage Canada in a statement.
“We’re willing to continue talking with the platforms…. We’re calling on platforms to stay at the table.”
Earlier this summer, Meta’s head of public policy in Canada, Rachel Curran told CBC’s Power and Politics, “Our trajectory is set. There is no way to negotiate out of the framework of this bill.”
There are lots of reasons to dislike Facebook, but the fact that publishers like to post links because it drives traffic to their sites isn’t one of them,– Michael Geist, University of Ottawa law professor
Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa and Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, doesn’t agree with the government’s approach.
“I don’t think links ought to be compensable,” he said. “There are lots of reasons to dislike Facebook, but the fact that publishers like to post links because it drives traffic to their sites isn’t one of them.”
In fact, Geist says media organizations were getting good exposure for free, thanks to Facebook.
If Canada wants more compensation from the world’s big social media companies, it needs to tax them, not charge a fee for every link they post, Geist said.
And in fact, the federal government plans to move forward with a Digital Services Tax (DST), as of January 1, 2024, if a global agreement is not reached, said Katherine Cuplinskas, press secretary to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.
For the last number of years, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has been trying to reach an international agreement on how to tax digital companies by mid-2020.
According to the government’s website, “The DST would apply at a rate of three per cent on certain revenue earned by large businesses from certain digital services reliant on the engagement, data and content contributions of Canadian users, as well as on certain sales or licensing of Canadian user data.”
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
Geist thinks Facebook is backing away from news altogether; he buys the company’s argument that posting links to news is not a very profitable part of their business.
“We need to face up to the likelihood that Facebook is exiting the news sector in Canada,” he said. “They’re likely to do it in a lot of countries.
“There doesn’t appear to be an obvious path back for Facebook and news in Canada unless the government rescinds the law, but I don’t see much likelihood of that either.”
A coalition of media companies, including CBC/Radio-Canada, is calling on the Competition Bureau to investigate Meta’s move to block news on Facebook and Instagram in Canada.
If there’s a lesson in all of this, it’s that publishers shouldn’t depend on only one social media provider, said Deegan.
“Publishers have been going to where there’s a large audience,” he said. “Being overly reliant on a single channel is not sustainable.
“For publishers the clear choice they have to make is to build their own audience — driving traffic to themselves directly. And that’s already underway.”
Nonetheless, Facebook remains an important piece of the puzzle for news outlets, said Deegan.
