Move By Meta To Block Canadian News On Its Platforms Generates Tension

<h4>Move By Meta To Block Canadian News On Its Platforms Generates Tension<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> has reliably gathered that Canada’s antitrust watchdog is investigating Meta’s move to block Canadian news on its platforms&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Competition Bureau confirmed it is doing a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;preliminary review” on the same day that a consortium of Canadian news outlets asked it &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;to use its investigative and prosecutorial tools to protect competition and prohibit Meta from continuing to block Canadians’ access to news content&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Meta&comma; which owns Facebook and Instagram&comma; started blocking news articles for Canadians in response to a federal law that would force it to share revenue with news outlets&period; The law won’t take effect for six months&comma; but Meta has reacted aggressively&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Rather than comply or consult with the government about next steps&comma; it has moved to just block news links&comma; arguing that people don’t come to the platform for that purpose&period; The federal government has denounced the move&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We’re going to keep standing our ground&comma;” said Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;After all&comma; if the government can’t stand up for Canadians against tech giants&comma; who will&quest;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;vanguardngr&period;com&sol;">Both Meta and Alphabet&comma; which owns Google&comma; have said they will block news rather than pay for it&comma; although Google has not responded as aggressively&period;<&sol;a><br &sol;>&NewLine;Observers think both companies have reason to be uneasy about setting a precedent that governments in other jurisdictions might emulate&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But so far&comma; the tech giants appear to be winning the game of chicken&period; In June&comma; a California link tax bill stalled in the legislature and a similar bill seems to be stuck in Congress&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Canadian media outlets have seen their traffic from Facebook cut — some have seen their page views halved — which has a knock-on effect on potential advertising revenue&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But they should not hold their breath hoping to be rescued by the Competition Bureau&comma; according to an analysis by University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist&comma; an expert in e-commerce law who described the industry’s complaint as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;exceptionally weak&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;17026" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-17026" style&equals;"width&colon; 300px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-17026" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2022&sol;09&sol;gettyimages-944480672-612x612-1-300x200&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Move By Meta To Block Canadian News On Its Platforms Generates Tension" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"200" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-17026" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em><strong>Mark Zuckerberg &comma; CEO of Meta<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;