The federal government says its willingness to speak with Meta about the possibility of seeing online news return to Facebook is part of an ongoing conversation Canada is having with the United States as the review of CUSMA nears.
“The door has always been open on our government’s side to discuss these issues. We’ve been having regular discussions with platforms since the Online News Act was developed. This is nothing new,” said Hermine Landry, press secretary to Culture Minister Mark Miller.
The Online News Act, which became law in 2023, requires tech giants like Google and Meta to pay media outlets for news content they share or otherwise repurpose on their platforms.
The sooner people get off Meta platforms, the better. Like many of us, I’ve had to keep my Facebook and Instagram accounts because it’s the only way I can contact some people and it fucking sucks; they won’t email, or use a messenger like Signal or Telegram, or even SMS. As someone who saw firsthand the rather quick implosion of multiple early social media sites, like MySpace, it is bloody annoying how Meta not only won’t die, but is still popular. The lack of news sharing on Facebook did, however, get a few people I know to branch out from the Meta bubble so, anecdotally, I don’t think it’s wise negotiating to make Facebook more usable.