Meta REMOVE news from Facebook and Instagram in Canada after Trudeau passes law

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta will remove news from Facebook and Instagram in Canada after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau passes a law forcing tech giants to pay media outlets for content.

Meta confirmed Thursday that it plans to comply with the Online News Act by ending the availability of news on Facebook and Instagram to its Canadian users, as it had previously suggested.

Meta would not provide details on the timeline for that move, but said it will pull local news from its site before the Online News Act takes effect. The bill will enter into force six months after it has been approved by the Royal Decree.

“We have repeatedly shared that in order to comply with Bill C-18 passed in Parliament today, content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, will no longer be available to people who access our platforms in Canada,” said Lisa Laventure, head of communications for Meta in Canada.

The Canadian Senate on Thursday passed a bill requiring Google and Meta to pay media outlets for news content they share or otherwise reuse on their platforms.

Meta confirmed Thursday that it plans to comply with the Online News Act by ending the availability of news on Facebook and Instagram to its Canadian users, as it had previously suggested. Meta wouldn’t provide details on the timeline for that move, but said it will pull local news from its site before the Online News Act takes effect

The bill, which is about to become law, passed amid a stalemate between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration and Silicon Valley tech giants.

Ottawa has said the law creates a level playing field between online advertising giants and the shrinking news industry. Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez has pledged to push back on what he describes as “threats” from Facebook and Google to remove journalism from their platforms.

Legacy media and broadcasters have praised the bill, which promises to “improve fairness” in the digital news marketplace and help bring in more money for shrinking newsrooms. Tech giants including Meta and Google have historically been blamed for disrupting and dominating the advertising industry, eclipsing smaller, traditional players.

Laura Scaffidi, a spokesman for the minister, said Rodriguez would meet with Google on Thursday afternoon, hinting that removing news links from its popular search engine is a possibility. The company did not comment on the matter.

Meta is already undergoing a test blocking news for up to 5 percent of its Canadian users, and Google conducted a similar test earlier this year.

The Online News Act requires both companies to enter into agreements with news publishers to pay them for news content that appears on their sites if it helps the tech giants make money.

“The tech giants have no obligations under the law immediately after Bill C-18 is passed. As part of this process, all details will be made public before a tech giant is designated under the law,” Scaffidi said.

The Canadian Senate on Thursday passed a bill requiring Google and Meta to pay media outlets for news content they share or otherwise reuse on their platforms.

Canada isn’t the only country looking at laws that could force Big Tech to pay for news operations.

Australia passed a world first in 2021 that forced major tech companies to make deals with media outlets to compensate them for content.

Facebook initially blocked all news on its platform in the country while the legislation was debated in the Senate.

The historic move also inadvertently blocked non-media pages, including some from the government and emergency services.

Facebook restored news to feeds after the government agreed not to apply the code to the company and others like Google if they made licensing deals with media publishers.

Lawmakers said in December that the bill — which has led to more than 30 deals between tech companies and media outlets — was largely a success.

In addition, Meta has threatened to pull news content from its California platforms if the state passes a bill that would force major tech companies to pay publishers a “journalism usage fee.”

The proposed California Journalism Preservation Act would require social media companies and firms, including Google, to pay a portion of advertising revenue to news publishers whose work appears on their websites.

The bill aims to reverse a downturn in the local news industry, forcing publishers receiving payments to invest 70 percent of the money in “news journalists and support staff.”

Meta said Wednesday the law would create a “slush fund” that would benefit major media companies and threatened to pull news from Facebook and Instagram accounts accessible in California, where its headquarters are located