Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Meta, the company led by Mark Zuckerberg, announced its intention to remove all news content from Facebook and Instagram in Canada. This action comes before the promulgation of a new law which will force platforms to share their revenues with press publishers.

The Online News Act, known as Bill C-18, would force big tech companies to pay news publishers for content appearing on their platforms. Not only are Facebook and Instagram under Meta, but Google is also affected by this law.

“Today we confirmed that the availability of news on Facebook and Instagram to all users in Canada will cease before the Online News Act (Bill C-18) comes into force,” said Meta in a blog post, cited by The Independent, on Monday. (06/26/2023).

“We have repeatedly said that to comply with Bill C-18, passed today in Parliament, content from news media, including publishers and news broadcasters, will no longer be accessible to people accessing our platforms in Canada.” » added Meta.

The Canadian government says the law aims to create a level playing field between online advertising giants and the media companies involved.

Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez vowed to push back against what he called “threats” from Facebook and Google to remove journalism from their platforms.

Meta's plan to comply with the new law by blocking all information also risks harming news organizations, which get their web traffic from stories published on Facebook and Instagram.

The tech giant did not provide details on the timeline for removing the news. However, the new Canadian law will come into force six months after being approved.

Meta, based in Menlo Park, California, has taken similar steps in the past. In 2021, it blocked News on its platform in Australia after the country passed a law requiring tech companies to pay news publishers. But then the two sides reached an agreement with an Australian publisher.

Laura Scaffidi, the minister's spokeswoman, said Rodriguez would hold a meeting Thursday afternoon with Google, which did not rule out the possibility of following Meta's steps in removing news links from Google's search engine. .

Meta conducted a trial to block news for up to five percent of its users in Canada, and Google conducted a similar test earlier this year.

The Online News Act requires the two companies to enter into agreements with news publishers to pay those parties for news content that appears on their sites if it helps tech giants like Facebook and Google earn money. money.

(dem)