Meta had said it would remove news from its platforms in Canada if the country’s Online News Act passed. The bill, which requires big tech companies like Google and Meta to negotiate with publishers over use of their news content on platforms, did indeed pass, and Meta has now followed through on the threat — just as it did in Australia in 2021.
Australia backtracked, leading Facebook to do the same. Now Canada faces the same decision, but on Tuesday Meta announced that it “has begun the process of ending news availability in Canada,” and that the changes “will be implemented for all people accessing Facebook and Instagram in Canada over the course of the next few weeks.
The end result could be Meta removing access to almost all legitimate news organizations, but leaving up links to news stories from disreputable outlets, or blogs and other one-person operations.
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