Meta’s getting serious about its threats to remove Canadian news publishers from its apps, as a result of Canada’s proposed Online News Act. Meta is now conducting live tests to see how things will look without Canadian outlets in its apps to ensure that it can effectively implement a ban, in case the act is passed by the Canadian Parliament.
As Meta states:
“As we prepare to comply with the legislation, we will begin tests on both [Facebook and Instagram] that will limit some users and publishers from viewing or sharing some news content in Canada.”
Meta says that it’ll launch randomized testing of the removal of Canadian news content, with users seeing a pop-up notification if they attempt to share such in its apps.
Testing To Throw Out
Meta says that Canadian publishers will continue to have access to their Facebook and Instagram pages, but some of their content will not be visible, within or outside of Canada, and on either app, for the duration of the test. It’s a significant step, which seems designed to show Canadian legislators that Meta is very serious about its threat to remove Canadian content outright, as a result of the proposed legislation.
Canada’s Online News Act, in its current form, follows a similar formula to Australia’s Media Bargaining Code, with the stated aim to address market imbalance within the local ad industry. With Meta and Google dominating the ad market, the concern is that local publishers are losing out, which is leading to less coverage – and thus, a less informed public due to reduced diversity within the information sphere.
Given that, some governments are seeking to address this imbalance, by forcing Meta and Google to pay for any news links that are shared in their apps, with the understanding being that both companies actually benefit from such. However, as repeatedly argued by Meta, publishers themselves actually benefit more from Facebook exposure than Facebook does from the engagement that content sees.
Meta has been working to reduce the reach of political news content in its apps, due to user backlash around angst and argument, while Meta’s own stats also show that user exposure to posts that include external links has declined by some 50% over the last two years.
The Wrap
That’s a sobering stat for Social Media Managers – but it underlines Meta’s stated case that it actually doesn’t need news content, and shouldn’t be forced to pay for it, as the end result will only be less reach for publishers due to a Facebook ban. Canadian Parliament is still considering the proposal, but Meta has clearly drawn the line, underlining its willingness to go through a full content ban, if the laws are implemented. The impacts could be significant, and it’ll be interesting to see how Meta chooses to react next.
Sources