How Trudeau’s Bill C-18 is killing local news and putting Canadians’ safety at risk
Published August 29, 2023 at 9:13 am
Over 100 million followers of news on Facebook and Instagram in Canada have been wiped out due to Bill C-18 and Meta’s response to it.
An unnecessary fight between the federal government and the tech giant hasn’t just hurt small publishers like insauga.com; it has compromised the ability of millions of Canadians to see breaking news on the apps they use every day.
Over 100 million followers of news on Facebook and Instagram in Canada have been wiped out.
Insauga.com and hundreds of other local digital news publications across Canada won’t be able to publish stories about new mom-and-pop shop restaurants that just opened, local festivals and events in town, town or city council updates, missing people, severe weather alerts, wildfires, charities that need help, and stories about incredible and interesting people in our communities on Facebook or Instagram today.
There is also a major safety angle to this fight.
There is also a major safety angle to this fight.
Last year, a man fatally shot Toronto Police Const. Andrew Hong inside a Mississauga coffee shop, then carjacked an unsuspecting motorist nearby and then continued on to shoot three people at an auto body shop in Milton, killing two of them (one of whom died in hospital days after the incident).
While the news was everywhere and emergency alerts were sent to people’s phones, so many people heard about the active shooter situation on Facebook and Instagram. This very well may have saved lives.
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This week, an Amber Alert about a missing three-month-old baby wasn’t sent out, and people couldn’t see the news on major social media sites.
We never asked for this–and so many readers are asking us why this is happening.
When Yellowknife residents learned they needed to evacuate their homes to escape out-of-control wildfires, they didn’t see that news on Facebook or Instagram because those Meta mediums–known just as much for sharing breaking stories as people’s pet and vacation pictures–blocked all news in Canada.
When shoppers had to take cover during an active shooter situation at the West Edmonton Mall, they couldn’t get updates on major social media apps.
The lack of articles about local emergency situations on Meta platforms (and it doesn’t matter if the articles come from the CBC or the BBC, Canadian users cannot view any news right now) is just one example of the devastating impact the federal government’s ill-conceived Online News Act (Bill C-18) is having on the exchange of information in Canada.
If people cannot easily access or share news during emergencies, the danger of these situations increases. People are accustomed to using social media to access and share breaking news about natural disasters, fires, crashes and shootings. Not being able to do that has consequences–potentially dire ones.
The bill, which will force tech companies such as Meta and Google to pay Canadian news publications for the content that appears on their platforms, has prompted Meta to simply block Canadian news, endangering local publications and compromising public safety.
This bill has a disproportionate impact on us, the digital-only publishers who have been able to grow and fill the gaps left by years of closures of small publications covering both large and small markets across the country.
We never asked for this–and so many readers are asking us why this is happening.
Since launching in 2012, we’ve grown from writing about restaurants and festivals in Mississauga to covering crime, politics, real estate, traffic, transit, food, entertainment and more in over a dozen towns and cities throughout southern Ontario. We cover the latest breaking news in Mississauga, Brampton, Hamilton and the Halton, Durham and Niagara regions, and it is often through social media that we continue to grow our audience.
The Online News Act is not benefitting Canadian media companies. It is handicapping them
The Online News Act is not benefitting Canadian media companies. It is handicapping them, and it doesn’t seem like there’s any urgency to address this, despite the fact that eliminating a significant source of traffic for digital publications could prompt more layoffs and shutdowns.
While Meta’s actions have been punitive and draconian, the government must take responsibility for this protracted fight that did not need to be picked in the first place.
In fact, when we reached out to Liberal MPs, we were simply told that they “did this for us” and that “Meta is being unreasonable.”
We don’t want platitudes or 20-word tweets decrying Meta’s response to this atrocious bill. We are not reassured when the Heritage Minister in charge of this file simply demands that Meta stop blocking Canadian news at once. We want concrete action to resolve this crisis and we want it immediately.
And so do our readers.
According to StatsCan, data from the 2020 General Social Survey on Social Identity indicate that 80 per cent of respondents get their news online. The survey also found that 90 per cent of Canadians aged 15-34 get their news online, as well as 87 per cent of respondents aged 35-54.
While it’s true that Canadians can continue to access online news directly–and we absolutely encourage everyone to visit us at www.insauga.com–this legislation has made it more difficult for people to access news using social media and, as of right now, no other country has this problem.
In fact, even the Australian government was able to resolve a similar dispute with Meta that ensured news blocking did not drag on interminably.
Meta has been blocking news in Canada since June.
This bill, which, in our view, effectively compels tech companies to pay for links, has achieved the opposite of its goal. It has not bolstered our revenues; it has endangered them.
We understand why the Online News Act was considered a step in the right direction by the Liberal government.
For years, ailing publications have asked the government for financial support to prevent layoffs and closures. The industry, like so many others, has struggled.
This bill seems like an adequate solution, as it forces big tech companies–often unpopular amongst governments and those rightfully concerned about the unbridled and dangerous spread of misinformation online–to compensate news outlets for the work that appears on their sites and apps.
This bill is punishing small publishers and the Canadians who depend on them.
The problem, however, is that it’s difficult to argue that tech companies benefit more from sharing Canadian news than Canadian news companies benefit from sharing their content on these platforms.
In a statement released earlier this month, Meta said the legislation is “based on the incorrect premise that Meta benefits unfairly from news content shared on our platforms, when the reverse is true.”
While we understand the impetus behind the bill, we do not see the sharing of our content as exploitative on behalf of tech companies. They share links to our content and those links direct readers to our website. They carry the content, and we benefit from the traffic.
In our view, this is a tax on links that is hurting businesses like ours.
We hope the government does the right thing and reexamines this legislation.
Our small company releases more than 60 stories a day and employs close to 25 skilled and talented journalists.
We have grown and have appreciated the privilege of being able to deliver news to people in cities as large as Mississauga and towns as small as Wainfleet. We want to continue to serve our readers and this legislation, as it stands, jeopardizes that mission.
This bill is punishing small publishers and the Canadians who depend on them.
We are now caught in the middle of a power struggle that never had to happen–and during a time of economic uncertainty
We hope that the parties involved continue to discuss and negotiate and come to a resolution that actually helps news outlets grow and thrive. We are hopeful that progress will be made in the coming days and weeks.
We are now caught in the middle of a power struggle that never had to happen–and during a time of economic uncertainty, no less.
We hope the government does the right thing and reexamines this legislation.
And soon.
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