The target started limit Canadian users’ access to news inside Facebook and Instagram. According to Mark Zuckerberg’s company, this is an initial test that should take a few weeks.
Also, users will know they’ve been chosen for testing when they try to post news content. That’s because both Facebook and Instagram are also expected to start blocking news sharing.
Meta executives say this change is a response to the “Online News Act”, which was enacted in April last year.
New Canadian law requires platforms like Meta and Google to negotiate and pay publishers of local newspapers and news sites.
As a result, in addition to Meta, Google has also started to implement a similar solution to avoid having to pay for news indexed by the search engine.
Commenting on the matter, the Canadian minister, Pablo RodrÃguez, condemned the companies’ initiative.
When a big tech company starts saying that if you don’t do this or that, then I’m going to pull the plug […] this is a serious threat. We will not accept this kind of threat.
It should be remembered that Google and Meta are also putting pressure on the California government so that the local parliament does not approve a bill along the same lines as the Canadian text. If the law passes, companies must also limit access to news in the US state.
