Bill C-18 | Meta will conduct tests on blocking articles for certain users

(Ottawa) Meta temporarily cuts access to news on Facebook and Instagram and threatens to do so permanently if Bill C-18 is passed. This measure, which comes into force on Friday, will affect between 240,000 and 1.2 million users in June.

“Of course, if the Senate made any really significant fundamental changes to the bill, we would re-evaluate our response,” Meta’s public policy manager in Canada, Rachel Curran, said in an interview. But we must be prepared for the possibility that the bill will pass virtually in its current form by the end of June. »

The House of Commons has already endorsed Bill C-18 on online news, which is currently before the Senate. This new legislation would force web giants to compensate news media for publishing their content. They would have six months to enter into revenue-sharing agreements after its adoption.

Meta thus prefers to cease the publication of news content from the media rather than compensate them. “A framework that requires us to compensate publishers for material they voluntarily place on our platform is simply not viable for us,” Ms.^me Curran.

The company says these are “tests” that will run simultaneously on both of its platforms to determine how it will adjust its products after the adoption of C-18. Random users will no longer see the news content and will be notified if they attempt to share it. The media’s Facebook and Instagram pages will be maintained, but their content will no longer be visible to 1% to 5% of users, for an indefinite period. They will still have access to Meta’s business services and advertising tools. An appeals process will be in place for media outlets that do not carry news content and believe they should not be affected by this measure.

“We don’t want to have the same issues as in Australia, so we’re testing now to make sure that when we implement this solution permanently, it will work as expected,” she said. .

However, the wall street journal reported a year ago that the removal of hospital, emergency services and charity pages from Facebook in 2021 was done deliberately to put maximum pressure on the Australian government. Its elected officials were then preparing to adopt the first law on an international scale to make the web giants pay for the content taken from the media. This measure which had caused disorder across the country had had its effect, since the Australian parliament had amended its bill five days later to exempt the platforms from Meta.

Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said again on Monday that he was not going to give in to threats. “Just because they’re fat, because they’re rich, doesn’t give them the right to come here and intimidate us, the Government of Canada or the opposition or the Senate,” he said. denounced during his testimony before the parliamentary committee. He believes that this is a frontal attack against “our democracy”.

“We have been signaling and saying very clearly for several months now that this framework is not viable for us,” Ms.^me Curran, in an interview. We now need to take the next step in our compliance strategy, which is to test the solution we are going to put in place. »

She also pointed out that the company is being transparent in notifying its users. A few months ago, Google caused an uproar by cutting access to news to around a million people. The measure had been applied on the sly and the search engine had finally backtracked. When they had been summoned to a parliamentary committee, its representatives had also indicated that it was a question of “tests”, which had not at all convinced the elected officials.

Most MPs who sit on the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage were just as harsh on the representatives of Meta three weeks ago.

Google and Meta accuse Canada of harming free Internet by imposing a price on hyperlinks. These are the two web giants that will be directly affected by C-18. The Parliamentary Budget Officer had estimated that the news media could raise $330 million. Meta submitted a series of amendments to the senators assigned to study the bill.

Earlier this week, executives from major media companies argued for the bill’s speedy passage before a Senate committee. Web giants like Google and Meta capture the vast majority of online revenue. This loss of ad revenue is hurting newsrooms. Quebecor, Global News and Postmedia, which holds the Montreal Gazettehave all announced cuts in their workforce.

According to the president of The Press, Pierre-Elliott Levasseur, the web giants have brandished this threat because they want to nip in the bud any legislative measure that could inspire the American Congress. “I think they don’t want this to be repeated in the United States as well,” he told the Senate committee earlier this week. He added that nothing would prevent Google and Facebook from not renewing the agreements that have been concluded with certain Canadian media if Bill C-18 is not adopted.

In Canada, Meta has already concluded agreements with 18 media, including Le Devoir, the six Coops de l’information dailies and the Toronto Star in 2021.