Yesterday, Canada passed its Online News Act, which requires tech companies to negotiate content deals with news publishers and pay news outlets for links shared on their platforms. As Meta threatened in March, it promptly announced yesterday that it would be quickly ending news access on Facebook and Instagram in response to the law, Reuters reported.
“Today, we are confirming that news availability will be ended on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada prior to the Online News Act taking effect,” Meta’s statement said.
According to The New York Times, it’s still unclear when Canada’s law will take effect, but Meta’s statement makes it sound like Meta plans to cut off news as quickly as it can. Meta claims that news has no value to either the tech giant or to users who do not go to Facebook and Instagram to consume news.