The media groups Quebecor, Cogeco and The Press have decided to draw a line under their advertising investments dedicated to the Meta, Facebook and Instagram platforms, in protest against the means of pressure deployed by the Web giant recently.
“Any action by Meta aimed at evading Canadian law, blocking journalistic news or disadvantaging in any way, algorithmically or otherwise, access to Canadian media content on its platforms cannot be tolerated” , said Pierre Karl Péladeau, CEO of Quebecor, in a press release Wednesday morning. The company owns The Journal of Montreal And The Journal of Quebec.
In the process, Cogeco announced to follow suit. “It’s a shaky ecosystem and an attack on our democracy. By changing the algorithms so that news is no longer [accessibles] to the public, Meta also controls the news. It’s serious, ”reacted the president of Cogeco Media, Caroline Paquet, on 98.5 FM on Wednesday morning.
The Press also indicated in an e-mail sent to the Duty no longer wanting to invest in Meta, adding that its reliance on social media ads had been minor for several months already.
The move comes a week after Meta announced the upcoming blocking of news from Canadian media on its platforms, in response to the passage of the Online News Act in Ottawa. Previously known as Bill C-18, these regulations aim to force digital giants to share the revenues they obtain through the distribution of content created by Canadian media.
Meta also recently terminated several royalty agreements it had entered into with local media, including the Coops de l’information (CN2i) and The duty. The Meta-The Canadian Press scholarship was also disconnected.
Note that Google, another giant targeted by the new law, also announced last week that links to news from Canadian media will be removed from its search engine by the time it comes into force.
In the opinion of the big boss of Quebecor, Meta’s attitude goes “against all ethical values of any company that believes in the importance of having access to reliable and quality content, necessary to a healthy democracy.
Both Quebecor and Cogeco have also encouraged other companies and institutions to follow their example.
On their side, The duty and CBC / Radio-Canada say they are evaluating this possibility. “The amounts spent by The duty on Google and Facebook are marginal unlike other media. We are seriously considering this possibility but we are waiting to see how the negotiations on Bill C-18 progress,” said the daily’s editor, Brian Myles.
In a note to readers on Wednesday morning, the director general of information for French-language services at Radio-Canada, Luce Julien, denounced the attitude of Meta and Google. According to her, by attacking “the plurality of voices and points of view” the web giants are attacking “our ability to make informed choices concerning our democratic life, our health and our security”.
She is particularly worried about the citizens, who are just as concerned by the situation as the media. “It is the citizens who, less and less, have access to reliable sources of information. If Meta and Google stick with their decision, the situation will get extremely worryingly worse. »
Governments called to act
According to Quebecor and Cogeco, it is necessary in the current situation that the various levels of government also crack down.
“In the case of the federal government, annual investments of $11 million are spent on [Meta]while only $10 million of these same budgets are invested in all Canadian broadcasters,” notes Cogeco.
Shortly after these public outings, the federal government rightly announced that it too was stopping paying the multinational Meta for its advertisements on social media Facebook and Instagram.
In Quebec, Prime Minister François Legault, indicated at the start of the day that he was not at the “boycott stage” of the Web giants, before changing his mind in the afternoon, also announcing “to cease all government advertising on Facebook, while Meta resumes discussions on the application of Bill C-18”, and this, “in solidarity with the media”.