Meta Pulls News Content From Canadian Facebook and Instagram

Meta has confirmed that it will remove all news content from Facebook and Instagram for users in Canada, following the passing of the Online News Act by the Canadian Parliament. Engadget reports: "Today, we are confirming that news availability will be ended on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada prior to the Online News Act (Bill C-18) taking effect," the company posted. "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."

The Online News Act is designed to address the precipitous drop in advertising revenue Canadian news organizations have experienced over the past two decades. It does so by requiring big tech companies like Google and Meta to negotiate reimbursement plans with those outlets for running said stories on their respective platforms. Earlier in June, Meta announced that it was working to develop a software-based solution to its C-18 issue. As of Thursday, those efforts remain ongoing "and currently impact a small percentage of users in Canada." Aside from the loss of news functionality, Meta assures its users that no other aspects of the Facebook experience will be impacted.

"Removes", not "Pulls".

[Pierre Pants]

or at least "pulls away".

Re:

[zlives]

they meant "tugs"

also news? in FB?

I don't see how this is going to work

[HBI]

I mean they can get the big targets to stop running stories, but they can't get the ad dollars back to the intended news organizations.

Maybe if they constructed a 'Great Firewall of Canada'?

Didn't work with Australia...

[IcyWolfy]

Facebook is repeating their actions from Australia's pay-for-news law..

Australia threatens law to make google/facebook pay for news.
Facebook pulls from Australia.
Australia passes law.
Facebook resumes news service in Australia.

Re:

[RitchCraft]

Yep, this. Everyone knows Facebook is full of shit. They'll pay just like they did in Australia after throwing their hissy fit.

Re:

[c-A-d]

The difference here is the law has already passed (royal ascent is a formality) and now Meta/Facebook is going to pull news ahead of the enactment date.

Re:

[JKanoock]

Why anyone would choose to get their news on Facebook is beyond me.

Re:

[dohzer]

I liked everything up until the last sentence.
Facebook should be a social media platform, not a news/business/everything platform.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Facebook is repeating their actions from Australia's pay-for-news law..

Australia threatens law to make google/facebook pay for news.
Facebook pulls from Australia.
Australia passes law.
Facebook resumes news service in Australia.

The two laws are very different however.

In AU the law does NOT make google/facebook pay FOR news, it makes them pay THE NEWS media company.
Those payments are required by law regardless of using that news.

Facebook pulled news from AU, AU passes law, and facebook/google had to pay when there was no news what so ever on their site.

Since they were being forced to make payments either way, there was zero cost difference for them to put news back on their site.

The Canadian law only requires payment for news faceb

Thanks for adding details

[clay_buster]

Wish I had mod points.

Re:I don't see how this is going to work

[wyattstorch516]

Maybe if they constructed a 'Great Firewall of Canada'?

They already did that, I've been smelling the smoke for over a week.

Re:

[denny_deluxe]

boo

They asked for it

[BigFire]

and they'll get it good and hard.

Lucky Canucks

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Although pulling Facebook and Instagram from news content would have been better.

Good!

[Baron_Yam]

Facebook is a propaganda platform for whoever manipulates it best, it absolutely shouldn't have actual news mixed in with it.

Re:

[zenlessyank]

I manipulate my own Facebook feed hence I only see pictures of dead rock stars and scantily clad women in bikinis. Oh Noes!!!!

Re:

[Motleypuss]

It's better than seeing news. Ugh.

Re:

[Canberra1]

Politicians will buckle at the knees come election time. Each politician wants credit for kissing babies and handing out money to worthy causes. But if FB cuts out news at election time - politicians are seen as do-nothing with last minute cash splash crooks. When Australia buckled, I think the large media compaies got like 1% of the golden days of revenue, and the online only ones got about nothing, Predict FB wins long term.

Re:

[JKanoock]

Exactly this, Facebook is a cesspool of misinformation and truth bending.

Good for Canada

[migos]

News feeds from social media is the root of all evil. They amplify divisive propaganda, and encourage people to go down the rabbit hole.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

News feeds from social media is the root of all evil.

"Are" the roots of all evil. "News feeds are..." not "news feeds is...".

Re:

[ukoda]

Unfortunately this won't help. There is plenty of other misinformation rabbit holes from non-traditional media sources for Facebook to feed people. Facebook has zero interest in where feeds come from or what they contain as long as they make people keep scrolling past ads.

Re:

[Motleypuss]

It's an algorighm fucking with everyone. Best to ignore it.

In other news

[rsilvergun]

media literacy in Canada has increased 87% overnight.

We should NOT

[MpVpRb]

... be getting news from facebook, or trusting anything we see there to be accurate

pray that happens in the USA.

[tatroc]

I can only hope it happens here as well.

It could affect sharing

[mkwan]

I don't know if many people get their news from Facebook and Instagram, but I know a lot of people express their opinion by sharing news articles.

If that use-case is blocked, it could hurt usage considerably.

Maybe

[argStyopa]

...if the Canada "news" sources weren't seen as basically CA gov't propaganda engines they'd do better commercially?

Since the trucker demonstration - which I didn't support but nevertheless find how they were treated was nigh-unto a police state, with the CHEERFUL cooperation and support of the 'independent' news media - I haven't bothered with CA news organs any longer.

Re:

[Vinegar Joe]

"Freedom of speech is an American concept, so I donâ(TM)t give it any value." - Dean Steacy, Canadian Human Rights Commision Senior Investigator

Re:

[Growlley]

So it's like white supremacist maga america with fewer guns then.

Re:

[Tyr07]

Nope it's the other end of the crowd that behaves that way, and everyone knows it, that's why they marked my statement as troll. If they thought I was being critical of what you're saying it would have been modded 5 for supporting the agenda :)

Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

[braden87]

Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. The less Zuck's cancerous ecosystem is accessible in Canada the better. Pull the entirety of Facebook while you're at it.

Does anyone care?

[Tyr07]

I don't know, does anyone care? I don't, I don't use facebook much at all, and I've never cared if it showed news or not. Is this relevant? Honestly, it sounds like facebook shouldn't be allowed to collect data from other websites and share it on their platform to collect and consolidate all the ad revenue.

It's probably far better that people are patrons of the news sites they prefer instead of sites people are not supporting getting exposure.

No effect in the US

[cowdung]

In the US this action would have no effect, since there are few or no "news" sites left. Most are just commentary, opinion, outright lies or propaganda.

and in their press release it said

[Growlley]

You won't believe #8 about why this is bad for 'freedumb"!

Fake News Only

[canajin56]

Almost every "news article" that shows up in my Canadian Facebook feed is an ad disguised as a news article. They all have CNN, CBC, etc. skins, but are directed to an IP address, no domain name. (They've switched to keyboard smash domains now that browsers warn you about HTTP insecurity). Oh look, the prime minister committed suicide but not before endorsing a "keto CDB gummy" that coincidentally "CBC" sells. Facebook says "I'm sorry you don't like our perfect ads but we investigated your report and found

Oh no!

[smadad]

Please Facebook don't do it, whatever will we do.