TORONTO — In response to the passage of Canada’s Online News Act, the Mark Zuckerberg-founded Meta blocked access to news on Facebook and Instagram for Canadian users.
The President/CEO of the U.S.’s National Association of Broadcasters and the President of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters condemned the move while signaling their support of Ottawa.
“As national associations representing broadcasters in the U.S. and Canada, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) strongly urge lawmakers to support legislation that enables news providers to negotiate with dominant digital platforms for fair terms and conditions when our content appears on their platforms,” Curtis LeGeyt of the NAB and Kevin Desjardins of the CAB wrote in a joint statement.
“Meta – a nearly trillion-dollar company – repeatedly chooses to restrict news content for its users to avoid compensating news producers for the value it gains on their vital journalism,” they assert. “These retaliatory tactics demonstrate Meta’s monopolistic dominance over the advertising marketplace and its ability to dictate how radio and TV broadcasters, newspapers and others can reach audiences online. Rather than working to ensure its users have access to trusted news and information, Meta is holding news content on its platform hostage.”
As such, it is the view of the CAB and NAB that policymakers in Parliament “should not reward Meta’s coercive behavior. At a time when misinformation, disinformation and AI-generated content proliferate online, the future of democracy relies on the accessibility of fact-based, trustworthy journalism.”
The NAB seeks the passage of similar legislation to the Online News Act in the U.S. through the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act. Originally introduced in 2021, the “JCPA” has had a rough road toward passage in Congress. Known as “S.1094” in the 118th Congress, the current Senate bill, introduced in March by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), has 15 Co-Sponsors — the most recent being Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Angus King (Ind.-Maine) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii). Their support came on May 17.
