OTTAWA, Ont.-Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram started blocking Canadian news, including Indigenous groups, on their social media platforms on August 1.
Meta has acknowledged the action as a response to the Online News Act (Bill C-18), which became law on June 22. The law was designed to "level the playing field" between global platforms and Canadian news outlets by requiring tech companies to pay Canadian publishers when sharing the publishers' news content on their platforms.
Indigenous media outlets across the country that serve local audiences say they've been left scrambling after Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram started blocking news in Canada on Aug. 1.
Meta's news block was a response to the Online News Act (Bill C-18), which became law on June 22 and requires tech companies to compensate Canadian publishers when their news content is shared on their platforms.
The federal government estimated that Meta would need to contribute $62 million and Google, $172 million, to the Canadian news industry under Bill C-18.
While global giant Google is negotiating with the Canadian government, Meta chose to block news rather than negotiate. Meta claims that the legislation is based on a wrong assumption that the company receives unfair benefits from news content shared on their platforms.
A number of Indigenous publishers are concerned that the media giant's actions could drastically hurt or even kill their companies.
Greg Horn, the publisher of the Mohawk community newspaper Iorì:wase, told APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network) reporters that he has seen a 13 percent drop in page views over the last few weeks. "For small publications, that could be very detrimental," he said. "Prior to this ban on news, we reached 25,000 accounts a week so to not know how many accounts we have reached in the last two weeks, it's challenging."
Indiginews in British Colombia has noted that the block affects 43 percent of their audience. Anna McKenzie, a journalist with Indiginews noted, "With all of the fires, we can't get our stories to our audience. We have lots of folks reaching out, 'What is going on?' They don't even know the full impact of what is happening in Canadian news right now."
The publisher of Indiginews, Eden Fineday told APTN that social media, especially through Facebook, is a primary source for their Indigenous readers.
"Facebook is where we go. Facebook is where we found each other. Where we connect. For so many years, that is where I got information from my band council," Fineday told APTN. "It's certainly where all of my aunties, cousins, neighbors on the rez, all of those folks, people that I am not related to but I am connected to through my community, they are all on Facebook. So, for us to have that taken away specifically, it really hurts. It really hurts us more as Indigenous people."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publically criticized Meta for continuing to block news in late August as wildfires continued to burn in Canada. His censure has not changed Meta's decisions.
