It could be months before an escalating fight between Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, and the Canadian government gets resolved, but Matthew DiMera, publisher of a Canadian news organization, is already feeling the pain.
Mr. DiMera tried to create an Instagram post featuring a news article by his outlet, The Resolve — something news organizations do routinely to promote their work. Instead, he said, he was greeted by the message: “People in Canada can’t see your content,”
Meta this week began blocking news from appearing on its platforms in Canada, the latest twist in its standoff with the government over a new law that will require technology companies to compensate domestic publishers for using their content. The law comes at a time when the news industry in Canada, as in much of the world, is shrinking under the pressure of lower advertising revenues, and depends on social networks for much of its readership.
“Instagram has been a really great platform for us to connect with people, so losing that is really a huge concern for us,” said Mr. DiMera, who started The Resolve in 2001 to report stories on Black, Indigenous and racially-diverse communities.
The new law will not go into effect until January, but Meta has launched something of a pre-emptive strike with a news blockade that it said will roll out over a few weeks. Facebook and Instagram users in Canada will be unable to share links to news articles from local or international outlets anywhere on their accounts, including in short video posts called “reels” or in the comment sections of other posts.
The law, called the Online News Act, was passed in June and will require technology companies to license news content through agreements with individual publishers, or groups of publishers, and then pay news outlets for linking to their articles.
Canadian news outlets and publishers reacted angrily to Meta’s decision to block news access.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the country’s public broadcaster, accused Meta of “an abuse of their market power” that would especially affect communities that rely on Facebook to access news articles, including those in northern Canada, rural areas and users from Francophone or multilingual backgrounds. Some of those communities have limited access to print publications.
“It’s another blow to democracy and to the opportunity for us to access fair and balanced, well-sourced journalism,” said Megan Boler, a professor of media and communication studies at the University of Toronto.
Meta defended its actions in a blog post this week, rejecting the notion that it unfairly benefits from news content on its platforms and arguing that it has generated significant revenue for publishers.
The implementation of the online law is still being negotiated between the government and tech platforms. Details to be worked out include establishing thresholds on payments to news organizations based on a platform’s revenues and what…
2023-08-03 17:07:11
Original from www.nytimes.com
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