Media on Tuesday asked Canada's competition watchdog to investigate Meta's blocking of news articles on Facebook and Instagram, accusing the tech giant of using its dominance to gobble up online advertising money.
Meta began blocking news last week in response to a recent law requiring digital giants to pay publishers for news content.
Google, another critic of the Online News Act, has said it is considering a similar move, among an ongoing global debate as more governments try to make tech firms pay for such content.
In a statement, industry associations News Media Canada and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, as well as public broadcaster CBC and its French language counterpart Radio-Canada, accused Meta of "anticompetitive conduct" and "abuse of its dominant position" in the online advertising market.
Meta's blocking of news on its platforms in Canada, they said, effectively prevents Canadian media from gaining a fair slice of the advertising pie and significantly reduces their visibility on social media channels.
"Meta's anticompetitive conduct, which has attracted the attention of regulators around the world, will strengthen its already dominant position in advertising and social media distribution and harm Canadian journalism," the associations said.
They asked the Competition Bureau to prohibit Meta from continuing to block Canadians' access to news and pressed Meta to "refrain from discriminating, by algorithm or by any other means, against content from Canadian news organizations."
Meta did not react to the competition complaint, but has said the Online News Act is flawed and based on the "incorrect premise that Meta benefits unfairly from news content shared on our platforms, when the reverse is true."
Rather, it said, news outlets share content on Facebook and Instagram to attract readers, which helps their own bottom line.
The bill builds on similar legislation introduced in Australia and aims to support a struggling Canadian news sector that has seen a flight of advertising dollars and hundreds of publications closed in the last decade.
It requires digital giants to make fair commercial deals with Canadian outlets for the news and information that is shared on their platforms, or face binding arbitration.
An estimated 80 percent of all online advertising revenues in Canada goes to Meta and Google.
Meanwhile, Facebook and Instagram together account for more than 70 per cent of the online social media market in the country, according to the media associations.
The parliamentary budget watchdog in an October 2022 report estimated the legislation would see Canadian media receive about Can$330 million (US$250 million) per year from digital platforms.
© 2023 AFP
18 Comments
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Sh1mon M4sada
OMG, this should be seen as a good development for the average Canadian. It means for the first time, news in NOT being manipulated by tech algorithms to create instability and chaos.
Strangerland
It is, though the Trudeau haters, who are too stupid to understand how to find news sites for themselves to read, are whining as if it's the end of civilization.
bass4funk
I agree.
Blacklabel
So what are good news sites for Canadians to become informed?
Strangerland
https://www.cbc.ca/
https://www.ctv.ca/
https://globalnews.ca/
https://www.thestar.com/
https://vancouversun.com/
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Antiquesaving
It is hilarious!
News corporations in Canada are complaining they are getting between 50% and 80% less traffic since the Meta move!
This basically confirmed what Meta was saying that these services were getting 1.9 million free referrals a value of $230 million at no charge ( that is Meta only).
So this is mainly CBC Canada's government propaganda service behind this.
Here is the craziest part of the bill.
CBC like all businesses gets to create a free of charge FB page and post snippets of their articles, under the bill if you click on the "see full article" it brings you to CBC News site, under the C-18 Meta would have to pay CBC for that click!
Yes so not only would CBC be getting a free FB page that sends traffic to their site they would get paid for it twice once by Meta and by the advertising on their own site when people go to it from CBC's own FB page!
The argument the " broadcasters" are making is like this.
If you have a YouTube channel or a business and are using Beatles songs, the rights owner says to you " you are using our music you need to pay us for the use" so you say " Ok I will not longer use your music".
Using the CBC and other broadcasters logic, the music rights owner would say:
" wait that's not fair, you must keep using our music and pay us"
This is essentially what CBC and the other legacy media are saying!
What they wanted or thought they would get was the free FB pages the 1.9 million free referrals and on top get more money directly from Meta.
Meta and the rest have every right to just cut them off,
Kaowaiinekochanknaw
You get what you vote for.
Unfortunately for Canadians, the preference voting system allows for parties without actual majorities or popular support to remain in power.
WEF puppets unite.
TaiwanIsNotChina
What do you mean preference voting system? It looks like it is first past the post to me:
https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=res&dir=ces&document=part1&lang=e
Strangerland
It's a win-win situation. Meta goes away feeling good for cutting Canada off, and Canada ends up just being a better country for lack of Meta.
Everyone I talk to here is all for it. Buh-bye FB news.
Strangerland
How is that unfortunate for Canadians? Instead of getting tyrannies in Canada, like America got under Trump, the parties here MUST work with other parties, or no legislation gets done. And if the leading party loses a vote, and instant election is called. As a result, the various parties here MUST cooperate, not only implementing their own policies, but also taking into consideration other policies, in order to actually get things done.
It's actually way better for the Canadian people than a binary system is, where you get either far right or far left politicians running the country, only to switch from one extreme to the other every four years.
So you're going to have to explain why you think this system wouldn't be good for the people. You're not suggesting something ridiculous like that Trudeau's liberal party can act on their own without cooperating with other parties, are you?
virusrex
I fail to se the argument of the media.
They say tech profits too much from their news, so they want a better deal. I can understand to this point.
But when tech says the deal is not convenient for them and they block the news then the media still calls this bad? SNS are no longer being able to use the news for traffic, right? that means they are not getting the supposed benefits, so it is all good according to the original claim.
Antiquesaving
And just like your understanding of economics on Vietnam you don't understand something as simple as a drop in 50% to 80% in traffic to Canadian news sites since Meta blocked Canadian content.
Your denial of the realities of today's world is constant at least.
Legacy media is dying and traffic from the likes of FB X/twitter, etc..is all that keeps legacy media afloat. Except CBC the government propaganda network, it gets all the funding from tax payers)
Strangerland
Which is better for Canadian society. Meta and social networking at parasites on society. They need to serve us, not the other way around.
Anyone intelligent sees clearly this is a win for Canadians.
Strangerland
Was dying. Canada is fixing that by picking the parasites off it’s skin.
Antiquesaving
I guess the horse and buggy are going to make a comeback!
If Canada wanted parasites gone it would start with getting rid of the acting teacher and his cabinet!
theFu
Canada makes law that says big tech must pay to use other people's work. I agree. Big Tech decides NOT to use other people's work. I agree.
Canada is unhappy that companies who aren't in the news business choose not to pay for news. Oh well.
I've always said, anyone who gets their news from the social media is foolish.
Strangerland
Nope, just people finding their own news in Canada.
There is literally zero downside to Canadians, and only upsides. It's always good when you remove a parasite.
Strangerland
Total idiots - and the exact people who are whining that they aren't going to get fed their algorithm anymore.