*Put Laura Hazard-Owen

Meta said it would remove information from its social media channels in Canada if the country’s online news law were passed. The bill, which requires big tech companies like Google and Meta to negotiate with media outlets over the use of content on their platforms, was passed by the Canadian Parliament. The tech company then implemented the measure, as it had already done in Australia in 2021. Later, however, Canberra backed down by the decisionleading the owner of Facebook to do the same.

In the case of Canada, the Announced objective that “has begun the process of ending the availability of information” and that the changes “will be rolled out to everyone who accesses Facebook and Instagram in Canada over the course of a few weeks.

THE big technology He is currently working on media identification.based on legislative definitions and guidelines of the Online Information Act” American journalist Josh Benton How news companies are defined in new Canadian law:

• Canadian journalism organizations qualified under the Income Tax Act;
• Canadian organizations that produce news content focused on issues of public interest, provided they employ at least 2 journalists and adhere to a code of journalistic ethics;
• licensed university, community or Indigenous broadcasters; or
• Indigenous media, run by Indigenous people.

The result could be to remove access to almost all legitimate news organizations, but to leave links for vehicles with a bad reputation, blogs and news broadcast by individuals.

Canadian Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez told the Seattle Weather which vehicles will or will not be considered as a means of communication within the meaning of the law: “There are a set of criteria that must be met in order to be able to negotiate with the tech giants… we have a set of criteria that media companies must meet in order to sit at the negotiating table.“. The media that would be allowed to “sit at the table” are the ones that Meta will delete.

The technology company did not specify whether the Newly launched discussions –a short messaging platform competing with X (formerly Twitter)– will be affected by the changes.

Read what changes, according to the purpose:

• for Canadian media: You links news and content published by news publishers and broadcasters in Canada will no longer be visible to users of Meta’s social networks in the country. News outlets are identified based on legislative definitions and guidance from the Online Information Act;
• for international news agencies: News publishers and broadcasters outside Canada will continue to be permitted to publish links and news content. However, these publications will not be visible in Canada;
• for the Canadian community: Canadians will not be able to view or share news content on Facebook and Instagram, including articles and audiovisual content;
• for the international community: There will be no changes to services for individuals accessing the Meta platforms outside of Canada.

By evaluating the big technology“The legislation is based on the false assumption that Meta benefits unfairly from news content shared on our platforms, when the opposite is true“, Meta said in his blog. When the company deleted the information in Australia, Traffic to the news site has dropped.

Already to the President of the Canadian News Media AssociationPaul Deegan, “Without access to real, factual information created by real journalists, Facebook will become much less attractive to users and advertisers.“.

* Laura Hazard Owen is editor-in-chief of the Nieman Journalism Lab.

Text translated by Fernanda Bassi. Read the original on English.

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