After Facebook Blocks News, Canada Fires Back By Halting Advertising Buys

As the battle between U.S. tech giants and Canada escalates, the country’s federal and Quebec provincial governments have halted advertising on Facebook and Instagram to force parent Meta to the negotiating table to implement Bill C-18. “Facebook has decided to be unreasonable, irresponsible and started blocking news,” federal heritage minister Pablo Rodriguez told a press conference in Ottawa on Wednesday after Meta began blocking Canadians from viewing or sharing news on its Facebook and Instagram sites north of the border. Bill C-18, which recently became Canadian law, is designed to get U.S. digital tech giants to pay local publishers for news snippets shared or repurposed on their platforms. While Google is cooperating with the Canadian government over how to implement the new law, also known as the Online News Act, Meta has so far refused to negotiate commercial licensing deals with Canadian publishers for their local platforms.  “All we want is for these platforms to contribute their fair share, not more, not less, just what’s fair,” Rodriquez told the press conference as his government withdraws around $11 million in estimated advertising expenditures annually from Facebook and Instagram. On another regulator front, Canada recently passed into law Bill C-11, also known as the Online Streaming Act
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