Warning: this column criticizes the Liberal Party of Quebec and, above all, Québec solidaire. But you won’t read it on Facebook. If you live in the riding of Jean-Talon, however, you will be stuffed with nice advertisements that will explain to you how extraordinary these two political parties are.
So, QS and the PLQ trampled on their principles and bought ads on Facebook in the hope of grabbing votes in the Jean-Talon by-election. Like most other parties, however, they had committed to suspending their advertising placements with Meta in order to protest its decision to block the sharing of Canadian news on its Facebook and Instagram platforms.
QS’s opportunism in this matter is particularly shocking. Solidarity is supposed to be the DNA of this left-wing party. It’s true to its name, after all! Attacking big businesses, demanding more social justice, supporting initiatives that will ultimately change the world, if everyone puts their effort into it, that’s his raison d’être – or, at least, his trademark.
For weeks, all of Quebec has been mobilizing in the hope of pushing Facebook back. The federal and provincial governments, municipalities, crown corporations and companies have stopped buying advertisements to put pressure on this American multinational which is bathed in billions.
In short, we are witnessing a rare mobilization, in which any self-respecting solidarity activist would undoubtedly rush to take part, right?
Do you think! While Quebec inc. is mobilizing, Québec solidaire is dissociating itself. For QS, it’s not a few thousand dollars that will make the difference. Boycotting Facebook is useless. So much for principles. “Symbolic gestures,” declared spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, “will not solve our problem. »
In this regard, demonstrating on Earth Day will not solve the climate crisis. What’s the point of taking to the streets? And then, while we’re at it, why recycle our bottles? That won’t solve our pollution problem, either. You might as well throw them in the trash! And vote? Why vote, exactly? It won’t change the result, just one more or less ballot in the ballot box. Especially if this vote is intended for a party that has no chance of coming to power… it’s symbolic, okay, but what’s the point?
We could go on delirious for a long time, with such logic.
Solidarity MP Vincent Marissal, a former journalist colleague, calls it “a question of democracy”, which does not lack irony when we remember that what led to this boycott was precisely the refusal of a foreign multinational to comply with a federal law adopted in a most democratic manner.
Interim Liberal leader Marc Tanguay says for his part that the PLQ will stop buying ads on Facebook after the by-election on October 2. In other words, the PLQ is for solidarity, but only when it suits it.
Prime Minister François Legault cries injustice. He threatens: if QS and the PLQ do not cancel their advertisements on Facebook, the CAQ could well end its boycott and buy some too…
Let’s hope the Prime Minister does not follow through on his threat. Imagine the headline: it’s the turn of the party in power to give in to the web giant! The CAQ would thus concede victory to Meta: impossible to do without its platforms. It wouldn’t amount to much, a few thousand dollars in advertising placements. But that would be terribly… symbolic.
Facebook doesn’t care about Canada, its media and the communities that occupy these few acres of snow. We saw this when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pressed Meta to restore news in regions threatened by forest fires. Entire communities, urgently evacuated, needed vital information to find their way.
Meta’s response: a gigantic middle finger.
The web giant wants to make Canada an example. At all costs, it wants to dissuade countries tempted to also adopt legislation that would force it to share its advertising revenues with traditional media. Revenue, it should be remembered, that Facebook greedily siphons off, even if it means causing the closure of countless news rooms around the world.
This is not without consequences. Fewer newsrooms mean fewer journalistic investigations, fewer fact checks, fewer parliamentary couriers to hound politicians, fewer columnists to highlight their good moves and, sometimes, to denounce their crass opportunism…
Already, a third of the Canadian population only gets their information through Facebook. Suffice it to say that, for the past month, a third of Canadians have no longer been informed… at all. On this social network, news has been replaced (at best) by cat videos and (at worst) by misinformation. No, no, the Earth is not warming. Oh, and by the way, it’s flat…
And that’s without counting the damn algorithms that lock us in bubbles without ever confronting us with what others think. Facebook has nothing to do with debates of ideas or social cohesion. Nothing to do with democracy.
Come on, I’ll leave you on a hopeful note. Friday September 15 is the International Day of Democracy. For the occasion, the Professional Federation of Journalists of Quebec invites us to boycott Facebook and Instagram for 24 hours and to subscribe to a local media outlet. It might not change much. But let’s dream a little: if we all put our minds to it, maybe we’ll get there. Together. Solidarity.