Ottawa says Meta could still be subject to online messaging act, CRTC wants more evidence

The Liberal government continues to argue that Meta could be regulated under the Online News Act because users continue to find ways to circumvent the news ban.

However, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission does not believe it has enough information to make a decision, despite receiving reports that the messages are still available on Facebook and Instagram.

Meta began blocking news links on two platforms in Canada after parliament passed a law last summer that would require Meta to compensate media outlets for displaying their content.

Since the blockade, social media users on both platforms have found workarounds to the restriction by sharing screenshots of news articles, copying the text of articles into their posts, or sharing links to posts on X that contain news links.

Although the government operates independently of the CRTC, Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge has been signaling for months that Meta could still be subject to regulation due to loopholes affecting users.

“The Online Messaging Act may still apply to Meta, and that decision will be made by the CRTC,” her office said in a statement.

Meta maintains that deleting the “messages” as defined by the federal government means it does not have to pay compensation under the law.

The regulator noted in a statement Friday that it is the company’s responsibility to proactively inform the CRTC of any change in its position.

“The CRTC does not control the types of content that platforms make available to their users under the Act,” the regulator said in a statement.

“According to some reports, Meta continues to share messages; however, the CRTC would need further evidence to take further action.”

As a House of Commons committee examined the Online News Act, officials from Canadian Heritage said the act would apply to some tech giants if they made it easier to share news links.

The law will not apply to companies if they share an excerpt from a news article or a quote from an article, officials told a committee meeting in November 2022.

A new study, conducted a year after the ban was introduced, shows that local news outlets saw a significant drop in their audience, while Meta itself appeared to be unaffected by the ban.

Canadians are consuming less news online, with an estimated 11 million fewer views of news content on Facebook and Instagram per day, according to a study by the Media Ecosystem Observatory.

The research initiative, led by McGill University and the University of Toronto, has received federal funding but its scientists are independent of Ottawa.

Meta has not faced any specific punishment in Canada for blocking news, although top government officials have made their contempt for the company known.

The Competition Bureau is investigating whether the blockade violates antitrust laws.

Conservative heritage critic Rachael Thomas said in a statement that the Liberal government was to blame for the problems faced by small, local and independent media.

She said a Conservative government would replace the law.

Mickey Djuric, The Canadian Press