A group of small Canadian broadcasters are calling on the CRTC to force Meta to compensate them for carrying their news on its Facebook and Instagram platforms.
As reported by The Globe and Mail, the Local Independent Television Station Group, representing about 15 English and French TV stations across Canada, filed a formal complaint to Canada’s broadcasting regulator about the matter. In the filing, the group argues that the Online News Act should require Meta to pay up, citing more than 100 examples of news being shared across the tech giant’s platforms.
Meta has been banning links to Canadian news on its platform since the Online News Act, also known as Bill C-18, went into effect in 2023. Under this law, Meta and Google are required to pay Canadian publishers for sharing their news on their platforms. While Google has been compensating publishers through an alternate agreement to exempt it from the Online News Act, Meta has simply blocked Canadian news entirely to avoid payment. Meta has argued that the act is “fundamentally flawed” because the vast majority of its users don’t use the platform to primarily access news, while publishers find link sharing “valuable.”
That said, the Local Independent Television Station Group says Meta has only been “periodically” removing Canadian news from its platforms, often after they’ve been up for a while. Because of this, the group argues that it should receive some compensation. The Globe notes that a CRTC spokesperson confirmed receipt of the filing but declined to comment further.
Last year, Prime Minister Mark Carney floated the possibility of repealing the Online News Act, touting the importance of local news. The act has also drawn the ire of the Trump administration, which is no doubt another point of consideration for Carney’s cabinet.
Further, The Globe and Mail reported in January that the government is in talks with Meta to bring news back to its platform. Per the publication, the feds are concerned that the ban has led people to turn to other sites that could include disinformation. (That said, the government has shown no signs of halting its posting on X/Twitter, a major source of misinformation on the internet.)
Source: The Globe and Mail
