: Meta is being accused of endangering lives by blocking news links in Canada at a crucial moment, when thousands have fled their homes and are desperate for wildfire updates that once would have been shared widely on Facebook.
Meta on August 1 started blocking the distribution of news links and articles on its Facebook and Instagram platforms in response to a recent law requiring digital giants to pay publishers for news content. It requires companies like Meta and Google to make fair commercial deals with Canadian outlets for the news and information -- estimated in a report to parliament to be worth Can$330 million per year -- that is shared on their platforms, or face binding arbitration.
Ollie Williams, director of Cabin Radio in the far north, called Meta’s move to block news sharing “stupid and dangerous.” They “found other ways to share” information, he said, such as taking screen shots of news articles and sharing them from personal -- rather than corporate -- social media accounts.Several large newspapers in Canada such as the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star have launched campaigns to try to attract readers directly to their sites.