As fires raged in Canada’s vast Northwest Territories earlier this month, officials rushed to evacuate tens of thousands of people before the flames could reach the capital of Yellowknife.
A citywide evacuation deadline loomed and ensuring residents had access to accurate information regarding emergency flights, road closures and temporary shelters was literally a matter of life and death.
Yet despite pleas from politicians and journalists, Meta – the owner of popular social media sites Facebook and Instagram – refused to lift its block on news in Canada, raising alarm and anger across the nation of more than 40 million people.
“The ban is still a stupid and dangerous thing,” Ollie Williams, editor of the Yellowknife-based Cabin Radio, told Al Jazeera.
Williams said that although people were able to reach the news outlet’s content and find ways around the ban, including by posting screenshots of articles, during the peak of the wildfires, Meta’s policy remains unjustifiable.
“It shouldn’t be in place – certainly not right now,” he said.
The law
In June, the Canadian Parliament passed the Online News Act, requiring social media companies to share revenue with media outlets that share their content on the platforms.
The government said the law, which does not go into effect until the end of the year, was part of a push to help the struggling Canadian media industry. It calls for voluntary commercial agreements between large digital platforms – such as Facebook and Google – and news outlets, but allows Ottawa to step in if such deals are not reached.
Digital platforms responded forcefully to the legislation, with Google calling it a “link tax” and threatening to stop featuring Canadian news websites in its search and other platforms when the law comes into force.
Meta went a step further: It imposed a Canadian news blackout beginning on August 1, effectively blocking Facebook and Instagram users in Canada from being able to see news articles on the platforms or to post links themselves.
“The legislation is based on the incorrect premise that Meta benefits unfairly from news content shared on our platforms, when the reverse is true,” the company said in a statement in June.
The Canadian government slammed Meta’s position and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau more recently decried the decision to maintain the block during the Yellowknife evacuations as “inconceivable”.
The Al Jazeera English Facebook page, as viewed from Canada after the Meta news ban [Al Jazeera]
“Facebook is putting corporate profits ahead of people’s safety,” Trudeau said last week.
But the company has refused to back down in a standoff that raises challenging questions about whether social media platforms have responsibilities to society, what role governments have in regulating them, and what the future is for journalism in the digital age.
Experts told Al Jazeera that the impasse should push news outlets to rethink their reliance on social media to reach audiences and propel policymakers to find ways to support local journalism.
“There is much danger in becoming too dependent upon these large platforms as core parts of your business model and your operations; it makes you structurally vulnerable,” said Dwayne Winseck, a professor of media studies at Carleton University in Ottawa.
Supporters of the law also say it aims to correct a skewed relationship between news outlets and social media websites, where journalists do the hard work but large platforms get the lion’s share of digital advertising.
The Canadian government has reported that more than 450 news outlets have closed across the country over the past 15 years while at least one-third of journalism jobs have disappeared since 2010.
“As Meta and Google were consolidating their grip on online advertising and the online distribution and sharing of news, journalists and journalism were undergoing a crisis,” Winseck told Al Jazeera.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called Meta’s news ban ‘inconceivable’ [File: Amber Bracken/Reuters]
Meta responds
In response to complaints during the recent Canadian wildfires, Meta has touted Facebook’s “Safety Check”, which allows people to mark themselves as “safe” during emergencies through a so-called “crisis response” page and request support if needed.
A company spokesperson told Al Jazeera in an email this month that the Safety Check system also allows Facebook users to “access updates from reputable sources” in times of crisis.
“People in Canada can continue to use our technologies to connect with their communities and access reputable information, including content from official government agencies, emergency services and non-governmental organizations,” the spokesperson said.
But Facebook’s crisis response page for the Northwest Territories wildfires contains mostly video content, including from obscure and non-Canadian news outlets.
And critics have said the wildfires in Yellowknife and other parts of Canada highlighted Meta’s uncompromising stance. Brent Jolly, president of the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ), said Meta’s “entrenchment” reflects badly on the company.
“It certainly – for me – speaks volumes about their commitment to disseminating quality information [and] serving their users,” Jolly told Al Jazeera.
For his part, Williams at Cabin Radio said he tried to reach out to Meta for a private conversation, but he has not received a response.
He said he does not necessarily support the new law, noting that it was mostly backed by large media organisations without consultation with smaller outlets. “But I also think it’s pretty unconscionable to keep the ban in place when it wouldn’t affect them to temporarily lift it,” Williams said.
‘Caught in the web’
It’s difficult to fully assess how Meta’s decision affected the wildfire evacuation effort.
But Winseck said the news blackout disrupts “the chain of information flow” within a community because people are cut off from those within their social circles whom they trust to post credible news and information.
Emilia King, an assistant professor in communication and digital media studies at Ontario Tech University, cautioned that the ban could also lead to a resurgence of online misinformation – a problem Canada and many other countries are already grappling with.
“The Canadian citizens, they’re suffering; they’ve been caught up in the web of this big conflict,” King told Al Jazeera.
“We’ve become accustomed to these platforms almost as if they’re public utilities. But clearly, they’re not. They’re private companies. They’ve proven time and time again that they put their own interests first,” she said.
Several experts said Meta is drawing a line to ensure that other countries do not follow suit and try to regulate the platform. “It’s like serving garlic to a vampire,” King said of social media companies’ aversion to government regulations.
There is a precedent to the situation in Canada.
In 2021, Facebook blocked news content in Australia in response to a similar draft law. The ban lasted just days, however, as the government amended the proposal to give social media platforms more time to strike commercial deals with media outlets before intervening.
The legislation eventually passed. In December 2022, the Australian government hailed it as a “success”, saying that media outlets signed more than 30 deals to compensate them for news featured on Google and Facebook.
Meta has touted Facebook’s ‘Safety Check’ in response to the wildfires [File: Dado Ruvic/Reuters/Illustration]
The Australian law ultimately enabled the government to apply the code where it saw fit. That, in turn, gave social media platforms a chance to show that they are contributing to the “sustainability of the Australian news industry” and be spared mandatory arbitration.
But the applicability of Canada’s law is broad, experts say, and it has already passed. Moreover, the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which oversees media regulations, has not finalised the rules on how the legislation will be implemented.
Winseck said the Online News Act does not set clear criteria for who is covered by the regulations and who is not. “We should have very clear thresholds because without those clear thresholds, it looks like the legislation was specifically made to harpoon Google and Facebook,” he said.
Rethinking news
As the deadlock persists, Winseck said Canadian media outlets should rethink their approach and reliance on social media to reach audiences.
He called for “imaginative steps” to make up for the loss of reach from Meta and possibly Google in Canada, and suggested one of his own: An aggregate news service by CBC, the public broadcaster, that would feature content from outlets across Canada.
For his part, Jolly, the head of CAJ, said news outlets should remind their audiences of the importance of journalists’ work and invite them to consume the news directly from the source.
“It’s important for news organisations and independent journalists … to really emphasise that, ‘Hey, we’re the ones who are on the front lines,’” he said.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
TORONTO – Jade Kovacevic, a veteran forward who has scored goals at home and abroad, is the first player signing revealed by the new Northern Super League.
The 30-year-old from Acton, Ont., has joined AFC Toronto, one of six teams scheduled to kick off the fledgling women’s pro soccer league in April.
“I’m so excited. It’s a dream come true for me,” Kovacevic said.
Kovacevic, who spent a year playing collegiate soccer at LSU and had overseas stints in Hungary and Italy, has been waiting a long time to play professionally at home. While she bided her time, the former Canadian youth international set scoring records in League1 Ontario and has given back to the sport by coaching youth.
She has also come back from a ruptured Achilles suffered in a game in May 2023.
“We’re thrilled to have Jade as our first signing,” AFC Toronto coach Marko Milanovic said in a statement. “She’s always trained like a professional, even without a domestic league to play in, and it’s that commitment, her goal-scoring ability and leadership that will help us establish our presence in the league.”
Kovacevic holds the all-time scoring record in League1 Ontario with more than 170 goals, earning five Golden Boot awards and four MVP crowns. Her League1 Ontario resume includes stints with FC London (twice), Vaughan Azzurri and most recently the North Toronto Nitros, where she doubled as coach of the club’s League1 reserves and League 2 program.
Bu she put coaching aside in March to focus on playing, with an eye to the new league coming on board.
“I don’t want to regret not doing something when I can’t do it any more,” Kovacevic said. “And I know I don’t have maybe as many years left in me as I wish I did and I want to take advantage of this opportunity. … I focused on my playing career, took this season as seriously as I could coming off of an Achilles rupture.
“And the stars aligned and the hard work paid off. I’m very very grateful to be sitting in this set.”
A cerebral forward, Kovacevic likes to operate on the shoulder of defenders, looking to make runs and anticipate passes.
“I like to think that one of my strong suits is being able to see things before they happen,” she said.
Born in Hamilton, Kovacevic spent 10 years in Flamboro before moving to Acton. She also played youth soccer in Georgetown and Oakville before joining the Toronto Lady Lynx.
“Jade’s leadership and her connection to the community will be an asset to AFC Toronto,” said NSL co-founder Diana Matheson.
Kovacevic spent one season at LSU where she was named to the2012 SEC (SouthernConference)All-Freshman Team and made Second-Team All-SEC. But she did not find the school a good fit and felt her football wasn’t progressing.
Plus she found she wanted to be closer to home. “Turns out I’m a big family girl,” she said.
Kovacevic found a home at Fanshawe College in London, Ont., loving both the school’s business program and football team.
“You were treated like a D1 athlete at Fanshawe and they put a lot of emphasis on making sure it felt like a professional environment,” she said.
Coming to classes of 15 to 20 students was also welcome after classes of 400 to 500 south of the border.
She had two stints on the Falcons soccer team, returning to do an advanced diploma after studying business marketing. In-between, in 2019, she spent half a season playing for Roma in the Italian second division.
“The time of my life,” she said with gusto. “I lived in the suburbs of Rome, about a 20-minute subway ride from Vatican City. It was just fantastic, I was there for six or seven months, helped the team grow a little bit, learned a little bit of Italian, fell in love with the lifestyle and the culture.”
But financially, it was not enough to support her. She had run into the same problem in an earlier three-month stint in Hungary in 2017 withGyori ETO, located about an hour outside Budapest.
Back home in Ontario, she settled in London where she began her own private coaching company during the pandemic. She also coached FC London’s youth sides while playing for the club.
“London has been incredible to me,” she said. “The fans there, the supporters of the game, FC London, they really helped feed the passion that I have for the game.”
Kovacevic represented Canada at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in 2010 in Trinidad and Tobago and the U-20 World Cup in 2012.
At one point she roomed with Canadian striker Adriana Leon. Kovacevic also grew up playing with and against current Canadian stars Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence.
And she would love to renew such acquaintances.
“I would love a shot at the (Canadian) senior level,” Kovacevic said.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
