CBC/Radio-Canada has joined other news publishers and broadcasters in requesting that Canada’s Competition Bureau investigate Meta’s decision to block news content on its digital platforms in Canada, describing the social media giant’s decision as “anticompetitive.”
Meta, which owns platforms like Facebook and Instagram, announced recently (new window) that it is permanently ending news availability for users in Canada in response to the country’s Online News Act, or Bill C-18, a law that requires tech companies like Google and Meta to pay media outlets for news content they share or otherwise repurpose on their platforms.
Critics of Bill C-18, including Meta and Google, say it’s unfair, unworkable and amounts to a tax on links, with no recognition of the traffic or free marketing
the tech companies provide to news publishers.
Meta has previously said (new window) that the only way it can reasonably comply with this legislation is to end news availability
for users in Canada.
Meta’s conduct called ‘anticompetitive’
Meta’s practices are clearly designed to discipline Canadian news companies, prevent them from participating in and accessing the advertising market, and significantly reduce their visibility to Canadians on social media channels,
the CBC said in a joint statement with the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and News Media Canada, a trade organization that represents newspapers.
Meta’s anticompetitive conduct, which has attracted the attention of regulators around the world, will strengthen its already dominant position in advertising and social media distribution and harm Canadian journalism,
the statement read.
The applicants ask the Competition Bureau to use its investigative and prosecutorial tools to protect competition and prohibit Meta from continuing to block Canadians’ access to news content.
Legacy media and broadcasters have praised Bill C-18, which promises to enhance fairness
in the digital news marketplace and help bring more money into shrinking newsrooms.
Tech companies including Meta and Google have been blamed in the past for disrupting and dominating the advertising industry, eclipsing smaller, traditional players.
In an interview Tuesday, News Media Canada president and CEO Paul Deegan said Meta is abusing its dominant position in the social media market, and is therefore violating the Competition Act.
Section 79 of the act prohibits abuse of a dominant market position.
So we’ve, essentially, called the cops, meaning the Competition Bureau, and we’ve asked them to investigate,
Deegan said.
We fully expect that they’ll come to the same conclusion that we have, that this in contravention of Section 79 of the Competition Act, and that they will take appropriate action.
CBC/Radio-Canada’s corporate position is that the Online News Act will help level the playing field and contribute to a healthy news ecosystem in Canada at a time when 80 per cent of digital ad revenue goes to Facebook and Google,
spokesperson Leon Mar has previously said.
