Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Meta (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram) is blocking news content in Canada starting this month. The move follows the enactment of regulations requiring platform providers to pay content fees to media companies.

However, it turned out that the blocking had no effect on Facebook usage. At least that's what data from two independent analytics companies, Similarweb and Data.ai, show.

Daily active users (DAU) and browsing duration on Facebook in Canada have not seen significant changes since Meta implemented the block, cited by Reuters, Wednesday (8/30/2023).

At the end of August, Facebook's DAU count in Canada was still around 5 million, according to Similarweb data. The chart shows stability since the previous month.

The time spent is still on average 40 minutes per day from the end of July to the end of August.

This report seems to confirm Meta's claims from some time ago. Facebook's parent company said news content doesn't have a big impact on traffic to its platform.

For this reason, Meta considers that the obligation to pay for news content to media companies does not make sense from a commercial point of view. Meta declined to comment on the data compiled by Reuters from Similarweb and Data.ai.

The Canadian government regulation called the “Online News Act” was signed last June. Platforms such as Meta and Google are required to pay compensation to Canadian media companies each time their content is distributed on these internet services.

Meta and Google rejected this rule because it was deemed unsuitable for their business. Specifically, Meta said that article links only make up less than 3% of all content on Facebook. This means that the dissemination of information has no economic value.

For information, the regulations put in place by Canada are also under discussion in Indonesia. On National Press Day, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said one of his priorities was regulating publishers' rights, which requires Google, Facebook and others to pay media companies for news.

The formulation of these regulations in Indonesia is still subject to further study by the Ministry of Communication and Information (Kominfo), independent institutions and platform providers. Let's just wait for the rest.

(fabulous/fabulous)