Facebook shutters news rather than pay up under new Canadian law
William Gallagher
Meta says it will cease providing news services on Facebook and Instagram before Canada's new law requiring it to pay news publishers comes into effect.
Canada's Online News Act (Bill C-18) has cleared its final Senate hearing and now needs only royal assent to become law. By the time it does, Meta will have shut down its news services for the country, so there.
Meta is effectively saying that it's their ball and they're taking it home. But of course it's not their ball, this is about Facebook and Instagram profiting from news publishers as it pays them nothing, and drives the industry out of business.
"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," said Meta in a blog post.
"We have repeatedly shared that in order to comply with Bill C-18, passed today in Parliament," it continues, "content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, will no longer be available to people accessing our platforms in Canada."
That wording is disingenuous, to say the least. To actually comply with the new law, Facebook and Instagram would have to pay money.
According to BBC News, the law would have required Meta to pay around $250 million annually (CA$329 million).
Meta has reportedly described the bill as "fundamentally flawed legislation that ignores the realities of how our platforms work." It has also been "testing" the removal of news services for users in Canada, while the bill was being considered.
Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez previously described the tests being run by Meta — and separately by Google — as "unacceptable" and a "threat."
In a statement following Meta's announcement, Rodriguez said: "If the government can't stand up for Canadians against tech giants, who will?"
Facebook made a similar threat to remove news in Australia in 2021, but there it reversed the decision once the local government had given in to demands.
Malcolm Owen
Charles Martin
Mike Wuerthele
Chip Loder
22 Comments
Fuck Facebook. Canadians are better off getting their news from outside FB anyway.
It's Meta's right to refuse to provide services to any or all countries. It's also Apple's right, and I hope this encourages Apple to refuse to withdraw services and products from regions with unacceptable rules. For example, now that the EU has won the USB-C requirement, the EU is suddenly pushing for all smartphones to have removable batteries. Is Apple going to continue to do business there if that law passes? Next, the EU will mandate the particular size and connection types for those removable batteries. Is Apple going to let the EU micromanage their product designs, or will Apple just leave the region like Meta is doing?
The EU is attempting to set the rules so perhaps a "local" can enter the cell phone market and be the only piece of junk EU folks can buy.
Once again, non engineering types have absolutely no clue what it has taken to literally downsize a main frame of the 70s into a hand held device.
EU claims a free market. The customers should be able to choose from a range of options. The EU says you get to choose only the Edsel model since all phones will be the same but can get different colors....