Province will continue to advertise on Facebook
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/07/2023 (876 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
THE Manitoba government has no plan to stop buying ads on Facebook or Instagram over Meta’s threat to block Canadian news content.
“The government supports freedom of speech and does not support federal Bill C-18 and at this time will not be following suit with the federal government in regards to activity on Meta platforms,” said a statement emailed to the Brandon Sun by government press secretary Miranda Dubé.
The federal Online News Act (Bill C-18), which received became law last month, requires tech giants to pay for news content generated by Canadian media outlets that is shared through their platforms.
The Manitoba government has no plan to stop buying ads on Facebook or Instagram over Meta’s threat to block Canadian news content. (AP Photo / Tony Avelar)
In response, Google said it would not show Canadian news content on its search engine and Meta, which operates Facebook and Instagram, threatened to dump Canadian news articles from the platforms.
This week, the federal and Quebec governments said they would stop buying ads on Meta platforms. Negotiations with Google continue.
In Manitoba, where the election campaign will ramp up heading toward the Oct. 3 vote, the Tory party said it would not cut advertising on the platforms, while the NDP said it would keep an eye on the developing situation. Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said his party hadn’t yet decided what to do.
“Honestly, I’d rather not be spending advertising (money) on Facebook while they’re defying this law,” Lamont said.
“People have said, this is the law of the land in Canada and if these companies want to operate in Canada, they need to obey the law. That’s the way I feel about it. For too long, they’ve been taking other people’s work and intellectual property without compensating them for it at all.”
He said the decision by the Manitoba government to continue to do business with Meta is not surprising.
Manitoba political parties are just echoing their federal counterparts, said Brandon University political science professor Kelly Saunders.
She said polls have suggested almost one-third of voters get their news from Facebook. If Manitoba parties decided not to advertise on Facebook and Instagram, they’d lose the ability to reach voters ahead of the election.
— Brandon Sun