Facebook says it will pull Canadian access to news as Bill C-18 heads for royal assent

Facebook announced Thursday it is to end millions of Canadians’ ability to access and share news on its platform in response to the government’s online news act which passed Thursday.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said both platforms would block access to news before the act takes effect, expected in six months time.

The move was announced after the online news act passed the Senate, without the changes that the tech giant had been asking for, its final parliamentary stage before gaining royal assent.

In a statement Thursday, Meta said it was “confirming that news availability will be ended on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada prior to the Online News Act (Bill C-18) taking effect.”

It said news outlets will still have access to their accounts and pages and will be able to post news links and content. But some of it will not be viewable in Canada. It said the online news act is “fundamentally flawed legislation” that ignores the value it provides news publishers.

The online news act was designed to help the Canadian news industry and make Facebook and Google enter deals to compensate news outlets for posting or linking to their work.

The tech giant’s announcement, which followed previous warnings, will come as a blow to the government which had hoped bill C-18 would lead to it entering into more deals with publishers and broadcasters, including CBC, for posting and linking to their work.

Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez reacted to the news saying, “If the Government can’t stand up for Canadians against tech giants, who will?”

“Facebook knows very well that they have no obligations under the act right now. Following royal assent of Bill C-18, the Government will engage in a regulatory and implementation process,” he said.

Facebook has previously warned it would block Canadians’ ability to find and share news on its platform if the bill passed without significant changes. It is currently carrying out tests restricting the ability to post and share news for 1.1 million Canadians on its platform.

Unless the government strikes a last-minute deal with the tech giant to keep it on board, for example, by issuing regulations, Facebook and Instagram users are unlikely to be able to access news, or links to content from Canadian media outlets including papers and broadcasters such as CBC. Some overseas publishers reporting on Canada, such as the New York Times, could also find their content blocked.

At hearings before a Senate committee publishers said that if Facebook stopped posting news it could cost Canada’s media millions of dollars.

Michael Geist, the University of Ottawa’s Canada research chair in internet law, said Facebook’s withdrawal from news in Canada would be “disastrous.”

“Everybody loses,” he said. “This is going to result in tens of millions of losses for Canada’s media and Canadians losing access to services.”

In Ottawa, some expressed optimism Thursday that the way the bill is implemented through regulations might yet keep Facebook on board, and urged the platform to participate in consultations.

“Dominant search and social media platforms are valuable partners in the news media ecosystem, and we encourage all stakeholders to act in good faith as we work through the regulatory process,” said Paul Deegan, President and CEO of News Media Canada which represents the News Industry.

CBC said it “would be unfortunate if the digital platforms used their dominance to deny Canadians access to news and information.”

“We encourage Canadians to go directly to the websites they trust for their news,” said Leon Mar, a CBC spokesman.

Facebook was continuing to hold talks with heritage department this week, Mr. Rodriguez confirmed to reporters in Parliament.

Ottawa was also holding 11th-hour talks with Google on Thursday in a last-ditch attempt to prevent it blocking Canadians’ ability to search for news.

The urgent talks between Pablo Rodriguez, the heritage minister, and Google bosses, follows talks between the Prime Minister’s office and Google about the online news act earlier this week.

Earlier this year, Mr. Rodriguez and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticized Facebook and Google over tests blocking over a million Canadians’ access to news in response to the online news act.

Mr. Trudeau said Google’s actions were “extremely troubling” and a “terrible mistake.” He called Facebook “deeply irresponsible and out of touch” for not wanting to compensate news organizations.

After Bill C-18 passed the Senate Thursday, Marla Boltman, executive director of Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, said it would provide “much-needed support for Canadian journalism.”

“We wholeheartedly applaud Parliament for getting this challenging bill across the finish line while staring down the barrel of Google and Facebook’s threats to block news in Canada,” she said. “Our hope is that these foreign tech giants will now abandon their intimidation tactics and show the Canadian democratic process the respect it deserves.”

Facebook has previously warned it would block Canadians’ ability to find and share news on its platform if the bill passed without significant changes. It is currently carrying out tests restricting the ability to post and share news for 1.1 million Canadians on its platform.

One area on the table for discussion between Ottawa and the tech giants are regulations that will flow from the act. Ottawa will have the power to issue regulations, setting out how the act would be implemented, as does the regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

“The Minister is meeting with Google later today,” said spokeswoman Laura Scaffidi. “Following royal assent of Bill C-18, the Government will engage in a regulatory and implementation process. The tech giants do not have obligations under the Act immediately after Bill C-18 passes. As part of this process, all details will be made public before any tech giant is designated under the Act.”

Google and Facebook have sharply criticized the bill for imposing potentially unlimited liability on them for links to news. By withdrawing from news, they would not come within the scope of the act.

Google has asked for clarity on whether existing deals with news organizations could create a path to exempt them from the bargaining framework that C-18 brings in, as happened in Australia. Canada’s act is based on the Australian bargaining code, where neither Google or Facebook were captured by its bargaining framework as they had done many voluntary deals with media groups.

Google has said it has not yet decided whether it will restrict the ability of Canadians to search for news on its platform.

It has already struck deals with a number of Canadian news outlets, including the Globe and Mail. It has expressed concern that the bill is vague about whether such deals would count under the C-18 framework, saying it has been urgently seeking talks with the government to find a potential way out from blocking news.

“We’re doing everything we can to avoid an outcome that no-one wants. Every step of the way, we’ve proposed thoughtful and pragmatic solutions that would have improved the Bill and cleared the path for us to increase our already significant investments in the Canadian news ecosystem. So far, none of our concerns have been addressed. Bill C-18 is about to become law and remains unworkable,” said Google spokesman, Shay Purdy. “We are continuing to urgently seek to work with the government on a path forward.”

In the final debate on Thursday, Senator Marc Gold, the government’s representative in the Senate, said the bill would address a power imbalance with the tech giants, which were now getting the lion’s share of advertising. He said it was at a “critical moment” for journalism in Canada with papers across the country closing and reporters, including in broadcasting, losing their jobs.

“News deserts are multiplying as communities across the country lose their local papers,” he said.

Kevin Desjardins, President of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters said the passing of the bill was ”a positive step in righting the imbalance that exists between Canadian news businesses and the foreign web giants that benefit financially from using their content.”