Meta continues to build pressure on the heels of the adoption of the Online News Act by Ottawa: the web giant is ending its royalty agreement with the National Independent Information Cooperative (CN2i) and its six regional dailies.
The organization was part of a group of publishers, including daily newspapers such as The dutyTHE Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star – which had entered into agreements with Facebook – owned by Meta – since 2021. The agreement provided for remuneration in exchange for the use of journalistic content.
In a statement sent to The Pressthe general manager of CN2i, Geneviève Rossier, confirmed the end of the partnership with the American multinational.
“We are obviously disappointed with this decision by Meta, because the regulatory framework which was initially intended to help the media should not end up harming them,” she said.
It had not been possible to know if the same news had been announced to other publications. The dutyTHE Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail had not returned the questions of The Press for this purpose, Wednesday evening.
Since the adoption of Bill C-18 aimed at forcing web giants to conclude compensation agreements with the media whose content they publish, on June 22, Mark Zuckerberg’s company has reacted by announcing that the media content would be blocked for its 24 million Facebook and Instagram users in the country.
This should be done at the end of the regulatory process, in about six months.