The Canadian federal government has announced that it will be removing all advertisements from Facebook and Instagram.
After parliament passed legislation that will require tech companies to remunerate media for news articles, Meta, the parent company, took the initiative of limiting news content for Canadians.
Officials from Canada declared on Wednesday that they remain committed to the rule of law and will not be bullied by Meta.
They noted that they have been communicating with other nations who are looking to implement analogous regulations.
Google has declared their intention to prevent access to Canadian news sources within Canada when Bill C-18, otherwise referred to as the Online News Act, will be effective in the coming 6 months.
However, Canadian officials expressed optimism regarding the possibilities of reaching an agreement with Alphabet, the corporate parent of Google, to avert the block.
At Wednesday's news conference, Minister of Heritage Pablo Rodriguez conveyed that their plans to implement regulations in the law should be sufficient to assuage Google's worries.
Mr Rodriguez noted that Meta had not interacted with the government to explore an approach forward.
He stated that Meta had not been communicating with them, noting their choice to bar news for Canadians was "illogical and negligent".
It is estimated by Mr Rodriguez that the consequence of Canada's withdrawal of any advertising on Meta's platform will be that the tech behemoth will lose C$10m ($7.54m; £5.93m).
He did not declare whether the removal of the adverts would reach Meta's upcoming platform Threads, which is due to be launched on Thursday as a competitor to Twitter. Nevertheless, Mr Rodriguez stated that Canada's decision in principle could influence all platforms held by the parent company.
The reduction of government ad spending will hardly cause a dent in Meta's sales Figures for 2022, which are estimated to surpass the $116bn mark. However, Mr Rodriguez is determined to portray that Canada will not be cowed down by any external influences.
He mentioned that he wishes this would motivate other Canadian companies, including Quebecor and Cogeco, which are based in Quebec, to follow suit; both of them recently announced that they are taking out advertisements from Meta.
Meta declared to the BBC that Bill C-18 is "flawed legislation which disregards the facts of how our platforms operate".
The company stated that publishers actively opt to post on Facebook and Instagram for their own advantage.
The federal government has declared that the passage of the bill is requisite in order for ailing news organisations to be able to obtain reasonable recompense for their reports and links distributed on technology websites.
A law similar to Bill C-18 was passed in Australia in 2021 but was subsequently amended after Meta restricted users in the country from posting or seeing news on its platform.
Once the alterations were put in place, the blackout concluded. Google and Meta have since struck over 30 agreements with Australian media firms.
Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, indicated on Wednesday that he regards the country as a model for the type of laws that are seen in Bill C-18.
Mr Trudeau commented that tech giants like Meta were seeking to make an example of them.
He argued that Canada being a relatively small country was no justification for Facebook's refusal to comply to their requests, and added that the company had made a mistake in its decision to confront the nation.
Mr Rodriguez stated that Canada has held conversations with other nations thinking of passing similar regulations, such as the UK, Indonesia, and Brazil.
Some US senators and commentators have also backed Canada.
In an opinion column published by the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, Brian Merchant asserted that Canada must remain firm and refuse to yield to the tech giants' fit of pique.
US Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is spearheading the effort to pass a similar bill in Washington DC, has also vocalized her backing of Canada's law.
Meta has already taken steps to limit news access for a limited proportion of Canadians in experiments and revealed that it intends to carry out a total shutdown in the near future.
Some Instagram users have reported coming across a notification that reads "In compliance with Canadian government regulations, news content cannot be seen in Canada" when attempting to view news content.
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