Meta ‘to End News Availability’ on Facebook in Canada

Meta is making good on its threat to limit news on Facebook in Canada as the Online News Act, which seeks to have internet platforms pay news publishers for content, goes into effect. 

“Today we've begun the process of ending news availability in Canada,” said Meta spokesperson Andy Stone on X, formerly known as Twitter.  

“Changes will roll out over a few weeks. 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.”

The Online News Act, passed in late June, compels platforms like Facebook and Google to negotiate deals with news publishers to share their content. 

In response, Google and Meta threatened to limit Canadians’ access to news on their platforms — they said that journalists and publishers benefit more from the audience their platforms offer than the platforms do from sharing the work. 

A Meta spokesperson directed The Messenger to the company’s blog post when asked to comment, in which the company laid out their concerns that the “the legislation misrepresents the value news outlets receive when choosing to use our platforms. The legislation is based on the incorrect premise that Meta benefits unfairly from news content shared on our platforms, when the reverse is true.”

The law is similar to one passed in Australia in 2021 that impels platforms to compensate news providers. The Australian law compelled Meta and other companies into negotiating deals with publishers after briefly removing news from their platforms. 

According to Pablo Rodriguez, the minister of Canadian heritage, between 2008 and 2021, 450 Canadian news outlets have closed. A similar story has unfolded in the US, which saw over 360 newspapers close between 2019 and May 2022.