A dozen independent French-speaking media are launching a so-called “subversive” campaign on Thursday to raise public awareness of the consequences of blocking news on Facebook and Instagram and to encourage them to understand the crucial importance of supporting local media to obtain quality information.
The two Meta properties have decided in recent months to stop broadcasting journalistic content in the wake of the adoption of the Online News Act, intended to compensate the media for the loss of advertising revenue they suffer. in the hands of the web giants.
Called “At the source”, the campaign brings together The duty, News, Deals, New Acadia, URBANIA and the Info Coops, which bring together The sun, The Daily, The Nouvelliste, The Voice of the East, The gallery And The right.
“Almost four months have passed since the blockade, and the hope that Meta will comply with the new law is increasingly slim,” they explain in a manifesto in which they say they have decided to unite their voices “to denounce this invisible censorship which weakens the media industry.
“This radical response from Meta goes against the very foundations of press freedom and access to information,” they add, saying they want to appeal “to the civic responsibility of Quebecers and Canadians to guarantee the continuation of our journalistic activities, crucial to the maintenance of a healthy democracy.”
The campaign, whose spokespersons are Noémi Mercier and Pierre Bruneau, is based on the observation that by blocking access to news written by professionals, Meta opens the door wide to the dissemination of false information.
It provides for the publication of false news ranging between the absurd and the plausible involving personalities on Facebook and Instagram. “Everyone is eating it: Guy A. Lepage is launching his own frozen Quebec pizza,” we can read on one of them, for example.
Anyone who presses the associated link will be directed to a page imitating a news site, where they will be greeted by video messages from Pierre Bruneau or Noémie Mercier explaining the basis of the campaign.
The messages conclude with an invitation to Internet users to support participating media by subscribing to their newsletters, downloading their applications or taking out a subscription in order to obtain direct access to credible and verified information.
“The media participating in this unique campaign all have one thing in common. They promote and involve readers in their respective business models. Together, we are sending a clear message: the best way to support your favorite media is to consult them directly,” said Brian Myles, director of Duty.
For Geneviève Rossier, general director of Coops de l’info, it is a question of “raising public awareness of the fact that the blocking of news by Meta weakens our media, and by extension our identities, our language and our democratic institutions. In the regions, this is even more true. You have to worry about it! »