Yesterday, Meta announced that it is planning to begin tests on Facebook and Instagram that will limit some users and publishers from viewing or sharing news content in Canada.
This comes after the company said a few weeks ago that it intends to block news content in Canada, in response to the Liberal government’s Bill C-18.
The testing period will run for several weeks, Meta said, and will affect up to five per cent of its 24 million Canadian users.
Randomly selected users won’t be able to see some content, including news links as well as short-form videos (Reels) and stories (photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours). If they attempt to share the content, they will be notified that they cannot do so because they are enrolled in the test.
In February, Google also ran a similar five-week test that impacted about four per cent of Canadians. It said at the time that the test was part of its normal course of business, and solely as a response to the radical change in legal landscape for linking in Canada.
Meta also said that tests are “common industry practice”. But the company is not budging from its commitment to end news content if the bill passes.
“As the Minister of Canadian Heritage has said, how we choose to comply with the legislation is a business decision we must make, and we have made our choice. While these product tests are temporary, we intend to end the availability of news content in Canada permanently following the passage of Bill C-18.”
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, who tabled Bill C-18 last summer, expressed his discontent with Meta’s latest move on Twitter this morning, saying, “The fact that Facebook is still refusing to work with Canadians shows how deeply irresponsible and out of touch they are. Once again this is a disappointing move from big tech and Canadians will not be intimidated by these tactics.”
He added, “I’ve never done anything because I was afraid of a threat, and I never will.”
Rodriguez will face the Senate Transport and Communications committee next week to discuss the proposed legislation.
Meta said that news outlets both inside and outside of Canada will be impacted by the product test. The company is designating news outlets that “primarily report on, investigate or explain current issues or events of public interest”, as stated in the proposed legislation.
It did not specify whether it intends to exempt access to emergency news and critical information, although it promised at a House of Commons committee meeting last month that it will not make the same mistakes it did in Australia. In Feb. 2021, Meta limited access to news in that country, including some government health department and emergency services pages, after the government passed legislation intended to protect smaller news publishers.
