Tech giant Meta will be eliminating news content from its platforms Facebook and Instagram in Canada due to a law that passed on Thursday, according to a company statement.
The Online News Act, which passed the Canadian legislature Thursday, will compel platforms like Facebook and Instagram to pay news outlets in the country for content posted on their platforms. Although the law will not immediately take effect, Meta has decided to remove news content preemptively, according to a Thursday statement from the Facebook and Instagram parent.
“Today, we are confirming that news availability will be ended on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada,” Meta stated.
The company previously warned it would do this if the bill passed, according to a statement in October.
Andy Stone, policy communications director for the company tweeted a similar statement about a bill in the U.S. Congress called the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) in December. Since this one was a federal bill, he tweeted Meta “will be forced to consider removing news from our platform altogether rather than submit to government-mandated negotiations that unfairly disregard any value we provide to news outlets through increased traffic and subscriptions.”
Meta said that it is going to persist in fighting “misinformation” on the platform and that “[f]act-checking will continue with respect to content that remains available in Canada” in the Thursday statement.
The Facebook and Instagram parent told The Washington Post it would stop censoring “COVID-19 misinformation” in June.
Meta pointed the Daily Caller News Foundation to its Thursday statement.
Instagram did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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