Meta launches tests blocking news for some Canadians on Facebook, Instagram

Some Canadians will soon be restricted from accessing news content on Facebook and Instagram, as parent company Meta begins running tests in response to the Liberal government’s online news bill.

Rachel Curran, Meta’s public policy manager for Canada, said the company would “begin product testing on both platforms that’s going to limit some users and publishers from viewing or sharing news content in Canada.”

The tests are in response to the Liberal government’s Bill C-18, which is currently in the Senate and could become law by the end of the month. The legislation would force Meta and Google to share revenues with Canadian news publishers by reaching commercial deals (Postmedia, publisher of this publication, is in favour of the bill.)

Meta’s tests will begin in the coming days and will last for a few weeks. Between one and five per cent of Canadian users will be affected, and those who are affected will be notified. Both the individuals and news outlets will be chosen at random.

“We don’t have an exact end date, but I think we’re safe to say that they will run during the majority of June,” Curran said.

In a statement to Postmedia, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said he wouldn’t be swayed by a “threat.”

“When a big tech company, whatever the size is, the amount of money and the powerful lawyers they have, they come here and they tell us, if you don’t do this or that, then I’m pulling the plug — that’s a threat and that is unacceptable,” he said. “I never did anything because I was afraid of a threat, and I will never do it.”

Meta has previously said it will pull news off its platforms if Bill C-18 passes in its current form, and Google, which earlier this year ran tests that blocked news for some Canadians on Google search, has said it’s still deciding whether it will do the same once the bill becomes law.

The bill applies to Big Tech companies — Meta and Google, and potentially others — that “make news available.” That covers content publishers and users share on Facebook, or that Google indexes in its search results, for example. Removing news content from appearing on their platforms would mean the companies are no longer making news available, exempting them from the bill.

Meta and Google say their main problem with the bill is that it would effectively force them to pay for online links.

Supporters of the bill point out the text of the legislation doesn’t actually include the word “links,” though others say links are the only way to measure how platforms make news available under the bill.

The premise of the legislation is that because the Big Tech companies benefit by having news content on their platforms, they should share revenues with news publishers — especially given Google and Meta earn 80 per cent of digital ad revenue in Canada. But the companies argue the value actually flows the other way, and that they drive traffic to the publishers’ websites.