Meta will block access to Facebook and Instagram news in Canada
After the Parliament of Canada passed the Online News Act, Meta announced that it will block access to Facebook and Instagram news in the country
Meta has announced that it will block access to news published on Facebook and Instagram for all users using these platforms in Canada, as a result of the approval of the Online News Act by the Parliament of that country.
The Online News Act or Bill C-18 is a rule that Canada raised earlier this year that seeks technology platforms like Meta to partner with the media to share revenue. This is because a large part of the income generated by the news of these media outlets is kept by these platforms.
In this framework, the company led by Mark Zukerberg already announced earlier this month that they were carrying out tests to “create an effective solution to end the availability of news as a result of C-18.” These tests are currently ongoing and affect “a small percentage” of users in Canada.
Now, the Canadian Parliament has approved the entry into force of the Online News Law and from Meta they have confirmed that access to news on their main platforms will no longer be available to all users in Canada “before it comes into force.”
As he stressed in a statement on his blog, to comply with Bill C-18, content from the media “including news publishers and broadcasters” will no longer be available to people accessing to their platforms in Canada.
However, Meta has also indicated that the changes focused on news content will not affect the rest of the company’s products and services in Canada. Thus, they have reiterated and assured Canadian users who use their platforms “they will always be able to connect with friends and family, grow their businesses and support their local communities.”
Likewise, the company has recalled that it will continue to “fight misinformation” regarding the content that remains available in Canada. In this sense, it has valued having built “the world’s largest fact-checking network” by partnering with more than 90 independent fact-checking organizations, which review and qualify misinformation in more than 60 languages.
Source: dpa
(Reference image source: Jason Hafso, Unsplash)
Visit our news channel on Google News and follow us to get accurate, interesting information and stay up to date with everything. You can also see our daily content on Twitter and Instagram
