The Canadian government will suspend all advertising on Facebook and Instagram, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez announced on Tuesday.
This decision was made in response to what he called Meta’s “unreasonable” and “irresponsible” choice of pulling Canadian news from its platforms in the wake of the government’s recently passed online news legislation, he said.
Rodriguez did say, however, that the government has had productive conversations with Google, which has also vowed to block Canadian news when the bill comes into effect in six months. Rodriguez claimed that the company’s concerns will be alleviated by the regulations that would come with the bill’s implementation.
“We’re calling on both platforms to stay at the table, work through the regulatory process with us, and contribute their fair share and keep news on their platforms,” said Rodriguez.
Meta has long promised that it would block Canadian news from Facebook if Bill C-18 passed and acted swiftly last month once the legislation made it through the Canadian Parliament.
In an exclusive interview with The Hub in April, Kevin Chan, the global policy campaign strategies director at Meta, said the legislation imposed a potentially unlimited liability on Meta, by charging the company for links to news stories posted by users on the platform.
“You’re basically putting a toll booth in front of every link for a news article,” said Chan. “And so if we’re up against a rock and a hard place then we’re going to have to get out of the market.”
Rodriguez argued that because Meta and Google are soaking up 80 percent of all online advertising revenue in Canada in 2022, some of it should be shared with Canadian news outlets that are suffering shortfalls.
Joining Rodriguez in the joint-press conference were MPs from the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP, representing, as Rodriguez put it, “two-thirds of all the MPs in the house to stand up for a free, independent, nonpartisan, fact-based and thriving press.”
“The reality is the web giants need to respect Canadian law, they need to respect Canadian democracy, and that is the profound message that we are sending today to Meta and Google,” said NDP MP Peter Julian.
Bloc Quebecois MP Martin Champoux brushed off criticism regarding the public reception of the Online News Act arguing that “two-thirds of MPs and two-thirds of senators voted in favour of the bill.”
It was “the right thing to do and it’s what Canadians want,” he said.
Aiden Muscovitch is a student at the University of Toronto studying Ethics, Society and Law. He has served as The Hub's Assistant Editor and writes The Week in Polling. He has also worked as an intern for Conservative Member of Parliament and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs Michael Chong.
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