Canada claps back at Meta for its plan to remove news availability in response to Bill C-18 by deciding to remove gov't ads on Facebook and Instagram

Unusual Whales

Jul 6, 2023 • 1 min read

Per Bloomberg

The Canadian government has decided to clap back at Meta's response to Bill C-18. Now, the government is removing its official ads from Facebook and Instagram.

This comes after Meta decided to end news availability on its platform for Canada after Bill C-18 would have required them to pay a fee. Instead of paying the fee to local Canadian news outlets, the company has decided to ban all access to news.

Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez gave a statement regarding the situation.

Rodriguez: “Platforms benefit from the status quo. They benefit from the fact that there’s currently nothing forcing them to contribute to our Canadian news system... That status quo isn’t working. All we want, all Canadians want, is for these platforms to contribute their fair share.”

From 2021 to 2022, Canada's Facebook and Instagram spending was $8.6 million.

Meta gave a statement upon making its decision, saying that in response to Bill C-18, they've decided to make publishers, news outlets, and broadcasters no longer available to users accessing their platforms in Canada.

Google has also decided to do the same by blocking Canadian news outlets from its search results. Canadian media was also dropped from the company's News and Discover products, meaning Canadians were encouraged to go directly to trusted websites for news.

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