The Government of Canada announced on Wednesday that it was stopping paying multinational Meta for its Facebook and Instagram social media ads.
Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez made the announcement alongside Bloc MP Martin Champoux and NDP MP Peter Julian.
The Minister clarified that Google is not affected by this announcement, since the search engine is working to “find a solution” with the government. This company is also threatening, like Meta, to remove Canadian news content from its platform.
The elected representatives of the three parties took the floor in a joint press briefing. Their respective political parties supported the Online News Act, known by its bill number, C-18. The Conservative Party of Canada, which forms the official opposition, opposed it.
This law plans to force the two main advertising giants on the Web, Google and Meta, to negotiate with the news media for the sharing of their content. Otherwise, they expose themselves to potentially costly arbitration. These platforms still need to “make news content available” to their users.
In response to the adoption of C-18 on June 22, both Google and Meta announced that they were going to end the referencing of Canadian news to users of their platforms in Canada. This means that media articles, such as those in the Dutymay no longer appear in search results on Google or Facebook feeds by the end of the year.
The full entry into force of the law is expected no later than 180 days after royal assent of Bill C-18, namely December 19.
This tripartisan exit comes at a time when two of the largest private media companies in Quebec, Quebecor and Cogeco, announce that they will end advertising on the Meta, Facebook and Instagram platforms. The public media, Radio-Canada, has also taken a stand.
In an open letter, its Director General of Information, Luce Julien, denounces the fact of “attacking the plurality of voices and points of view as Google and Facebook do”, which, according to her, amounts to harm the democratic life, health and safety of the Canadian public.
Further details will follow.