A few hours after his government announced it was suspending advertising with social media company Meta, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the move was made to defend democracy.
“This is not just a dispute over advertising, it’s also a dispute over democracy,” Mr. Trudeau told reporters in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, on July 5.
The prime minister says the companies making “billions upon billions of dollars” need to pay their “fair share” to support Canadian media as a matter of “responsibility.”
Social media giants Meta and Google have announced they would block Canadian news links on their platforms in response to the Online News Act (formerly Bill C-18) which passed at the end of June.
The law seeks to compel the companies to enter into revenue-sharing agreements with media outlets for the display of news links.
The law also aims to “enhance fairness in the Canadian digital news marketplace” and provide support to media companies suffering from diminishing revenues.
Mr. Trudeau said that “constructive conversations” are taking place with Google to resolve the dispute, but that Facebook is not cooperating.
‘Important Step’
Mr. Trudeau was asked by a reporter why the Liberal Party is not pulling out of Meta platforms, but he didn’t answer directly.The Epoch Times reached out to Meta for comment but didn’t hear back immediately.
In a June 22 update, Meta said that “in order to comply with Bill C-18, passed today in Parliament, content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, will no longer be available to people accessing our platforms in Canada.”
Meta was nevertheless Ottawa’s largest advertising expenditure with a social media company, with Twitter coming in second at $3,560,440.
The federal government spent $140.76 million on advertising during fiscal year 2021-2022, with $120.66 million going to media.