Trudeau Says Conflict With Social Media Companies a ‘Dispute Over Democracy’

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes his way into the West Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on June 21, 2023. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

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.”

Earlier that day, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez announced the federal government would suspend advertising with Meta companies Facebook and Instagram. He was flanked by MPs from the NDP and the Bloc Québécois who support the government on the matter.

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.

“Unfortunately, Facebook has just refused to recognize any sort of responsibility it might have in contributing to a democracy, democracies in general that have contributed to its success,” he said. “So we’re not backing down on this, this goes to the core of a free and informed society that is able to take responsible decisions in a democracy, citizens need to have access to quality local news, to quality content, to quality journalism that is properly paid.”

‘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.

He said that different organizations have stopped advertising and that’s an “important step.” The province of Quebec has announced a similar move, as well as media empire Quebecor.

The Epoch Times reached out to Meta for comment but didn’t hear back immediately.

The company wrote in a June 1 statement that the “Online News Act is fundamentally flawed legislation that ignores the realities of how our platforms work, the preferences of the people who use them, and the value we provide news publishers.”

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.”

According to the federal government’s annual report on advertising activities, it spent altogether $21,205,519 on social media during fiscal year 2021-2022. Of that amount, $11,423,728 went to Meta companies Facebook and Instagram.

The amount is minute compared to the US$116 billion Meta posted in revenue in 2022.

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.