Meta to end news for Canadian users on Facebook, Instagram

Meta has recently announced that it will put an end to news posts on social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram in Canada. 

This Tuesday’s announcement by Meta was made in response to the new Canadian legislation requiring internet giants to pay news publishers, named as Online News Act. This new act was passed by the Parliament of Canada stating that all online platforms including the giants Google and Meta negotiate commercial deals with Canadian news publishers for their content. 

In response to this law change, Meta refused to agree to it and came up with a decision to put an end to the news content on Instagram and Facebook users present in Canada. 

“As we’ve always said, the law is based on a fundamentally flawed premise. And, regrettably, the only way we can reasonably comply is to end news availability in Canada,“

 Meta spokesperson Andy Stone posted on X Tuesday.

The bill’s author, Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriquez, declared the government would not back down in the run-up to the legislative vote, calling Google and Meta “deeply irresponsible”. Somehow similar response was given by the Canada’a public broadcast, CBC. 

The legislation is part of a global trend where governments want tech firms to pay for news. Canada’s law is similar to Australia’s 2021 law, which led to disputes with Google and Facebook. Meta has also threatened to withdraw services in California if a similar law is passed. Google argues that Canada’s law is broader and includes charging for news links in search results, even for outlets that don’t produce news.

Meta also said that links to news articles make up less than 3% of the information in its users’ feeds and that news is not very valuable economically. This reasoning, according to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is faulty and “harmful to our democracy and economy.”