Meta will limit news access in Canada

This comes after the passage of the Canada's Online News Act

Image by Sergey Gricanov from Pixabay (with added grey filter and cat face)

Following the approval of a bill by the country's parliament, Meta declared that it will restrict news on its platforms for Canadian users.

Here are five key points:

• The Canada's Online News Act, which was recently passed by the senate, requires platforms like Meta and Google to negotiate commercial agreements and pay news organizations for their content. It is scheduled to take effect in six months.

• According to the Canadian government, the law is intended to ensure fairness in the digital news market and to allow struggling news organizations to get fair compensation for their material. According to independent estimates, under this regulation, news organizations might collect around C$329 million per year from digital platforms.

• The legislation has been opposed by Meta, which claims that it ignores the realities of how its platforms work.

• Before the law takes effect, the company intends to remove news off Facebook and Instagram for all Canadian users. Google, too, believes the measure is untenable and is looking to cooperate with the government to find a solution. Both Meta and Google have already been testing limited news access for some users in the country.

• The situation is similar to what happened in Australia in 2021, when Meta (then called Facebook) stopped users from sharing or viewing news in response to a similar regulation (the News Media Bargaining Code). Meta eventually agreed to compromise and work with the government.