Meta to block news access for Facebook and Instagram users in Canada – The Week

Meta announced that it would block access to news posts on its platforms in Canada after the country passed Bill C-18, or the Online News Act, a law that would require tech companies to pay media outlets a fee for news content. “We have repeatedly shared that in order to comply with Bill C-18, passed today in Parliament, content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, will no longer be available to people accessing our platforms in Canada,” the parent company of Facebook and Instagram said in a statement.The new law is just one part of a “broad and contentious effort” by the government to “regulate the digital sphere and circumscribe the power of tech giants,” The Washington Post reported. Last year, another law requiring streaming platforms to promote Canadian content to users in Canada drew similar criticism from the companies. Governments around the world are considering similar proposals aimed at sustaining “floundering news industries” by requiring social media companies to figure out how to compensate media organizations for the content circulating on their platforms. Media companies argue that their revenue from advertising has been plummeting since “the rise of the internet and firms such as Facebook and Google” and believe
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