How Meta’s news ban reshaped Canadian media

It's been a rough year for publishers and broadcasters in Canada. In the wake of Meta's news ban, Canadian news publishers and broadcasters have faced declines in online traffic, engagement, and revenue. As the publishers we spoke to illustrate, the ban, implemented last August in response to Canada's Online News Act, has dramatically altered the media landscape - and not for the better.

A recent study by the Media Ecosystem Observatory underscores the profound effects of these changes on Canadian media. The report, which examined the effect of Meta's ban on Canadian news, revealed that news outlets lost 85% of their engagement on Facebook and Instagram, leading to a total engagement decline of 43%.

"Canadian news organizations lost an enormous amount of their online viewership," explained Aengus Bridgman, director of the Media Ecosystem Observatory and co-author of the study. "They've been heavily relying on the distribution channels of Google and part Meta to get their work out there." The study found that Canadians consumed less news as a result of the ban, and that Canadian news outlets saw a reduction of 11 million views a day.

The report, titled Old News, New Reality: A Year of Meta's News Ban in Canada, found that approximately 30% of local news outlets in Canada are now inactive on social platforms. "Their digital presence has basically collapsed and they're no longer connecting to the social web," he said.

Navigating a power struggle

Meta's news ban in Canada underscores the current struggle and challenges news media face amid the power of the platforms. Facebook began blocking Canadian news on its platform and on Instagram, in response to Canada's Online News Act, which passed in June 2023. The legislation requires big tech companies like Meta and Google to pay media outlets for the news content they share on their platforms.

Rather than pay, Meta simply blocked Canadian news sharing on its platforms altogether. Within weeks, News Media Canada, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada filed an antitrust complaint against Meta accusing it of abusing its position.

However Meta claims that complying with the legislation would require them to pay for links to news content. Thus, they said they didn't want to operate in what they considered an unfair regulatory environment.

"(The) legislation misrepresents the value news outlets receive when choosing to use our platforms. 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. "News outlets voluntarily share content on Facebook and Instagram to expand their audiences and help their bottom line. In contrast, we know the people using our platforms don't come to us for news."

Meta argued that their platform provided significant value to Canadian news publishers by driving over 1.9 billion clicks to their content in the year leading up to April 2022. The company valued that at $230 million in "free marketing."

Meta's decision in Canada recalls a similar situation in Australia in 2021, where it briefly banned news on its Australian platforms in response to the threat of regulation under that country's News Media Bargaining Code. More recently, Meta stated that it will not renew any existing deals with Australian news outlets, nor those in France and Germany. In other words, it looks like Meta is taking a global stand against supporting news on its platform.

Impact of platform news bans on publishers

In Canada, the impact of the news ban was immediate. Traffic from Facebook plummeted, leading to a sharp decline in audience reach and digital ad revenue. Many Canadian publishers, especially smaller and independent outlets, faced increased financial strain as they lost traffic.

Chuck Lapointe, CEO of Narcity Media Group, saw years of investment disappear because of the ban. Since 2013, his online outlets have thrived as "social-first" platforms, relying heavily on Facebook and Instagram for distribution. Meta's abrupt ban severed Narcity and MTL Blog's connection to Canadian audiences, cutting off revenue streams tied to branded content deals and partnerships."Right away, all of them were blocked and Canadians were not able to see our content. That was an immediate hit to revenue," Lapointe said.

Facebook pages for Narcity and MTL Blog, which had well over 3 million followers, went dark. Lapointe watched as his audience dropped as a result. "We lost 50% of our traffic overnight, which impacted perception and trust." He also found that "some writers and journalists said that they didn't want to work with us because they can't share their work openly."

Great West Media, which produces 20 print publications across Alberta, also saw traffic and revenue decline. "If we look at traffic as the prime factor in driving revenue, then yes, the Meta news ban had a serious impact," said Brian Bachynski, president of Great West Media.

Despite the Meta news ban, Great West has still managed to grow its audience online. The company is using a variety of methods, including a strategy for breaking news, newsletters, SEO and more. However, Bachynski said "I'm certain if Meta hadn't banned news in Canada, our numbers would be greater."

He has concluded that it is in no business' best interest to rely heavily on a third party as the primary driver of revenue. "Because ad volume is predicated upon page views, the Meta ban has depressed traffic to our websites and therefore our ability to drive revenues. These revenues, however, are not enough to operate a plausible business," he said. "Even without Meta's ban, our audience isn't large enough to exist on the extremely low ad rates carved out by the monopolistic practices of Meta, Amazon and Google."

The decline in traffic appears to have been part of a longer-term trend in Canada, according to David Beers, editor in chief of The Tyee, a B.C.-based independent, online news magazine. Even before the official block, he watched The Tyee's Facebook engagement dropping over the previous year-evidence that Facebook was already adjusting its algorithms to deprioritize news.

"We saw it. It was unmistakable. We compared notes with other publications. They saw the same," Beers said. "It really throws a lot of doubt on Facebook's claim that if it weren't for the Online News Act, they would be supportive and sharing a lot of news on their site."

Beers said that Facebook may be using Canada as an example to deter similar regulations in larger jurisdictions like California and the European Union. However, he said, "no one pays attention to Canada, so there's no price to be paid by depriving us of the sharing of news."

Meta decides what's news

The ban rollout was also messy because it affected media outlets that don't produce news. Among them was the satire and parody publication, The Beaverton, and campus radio stations, from CIUT 89.5 at the University of Toronto to CJSW 90.9 at the University of Calgary.

CJSW Station Manager Adam Kamis believes campus radio stations were included in the list of news agencies simply because they are community media, rather than being assessed individually. "We lost our Instagram and Facebook about this time last year," he explained.

CJSW, which has been broadcasting since 1957, has 110 music, spoken word and multicultural programs in more than 10 languages. They have volunteer hosts talk about stories that matter to them, Kamis explained. "And, we don't even really do news reporting that much."

"Now we're getting no money and we have no use and access to these services. And though our presence is rooted in the auditory experience, we live in a world where the visual needs to be part of the presence as well. Without that, it's like we have the worst of all possible worlds befalling us where we have no presence and no money."

As a campus community radio station, CJSW relies on community and listener engagement. They leverage their following for ads and sponsorship. The ban impacted the station's ability to sponsor local music festivals and its annual funding drive, which generates essential revenue to support station operations, programming, and services.

It's usually an amazing opportunity to share on social media, but not with a ban in place, Kamis said. "Last year was our first year without it," Kamis said. "We were able to leverage our connections with our friends of the community to help… but that's a thing I don't want to rely on year after year."

Meta's interpretation of what qualifies as news posed a particularly ironic challenge for digital outlet Narcity-one that demonstrates the subjectivity of the company's decisions around what to block. "The government doesn't hold an official list of news organizations that Meta would have to comply with," said Lapointe. "So Meta… relies on their interpretation of which companies would be captured. And right now, you are automatically part of the law if you are a QCJO company."

For years, Narcity tried to receive a Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization (QCJO) designation, which must be determined by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to qualify for journalism labor tax credits. Narcity was denied the qualification in 2021. It resubmitted in 2022, and was denied again.

"Essentially [the government] doesn't believe that we do enough original news content to get the validation or to get the designation for our news organization, which would allow us to get the subsidies. It would allow us to get the QCJO, which would've included us automatically in the Online News Act," Lapointe said.

After the denial of the QCJO, Lapointe used the rejection letter-which says that the government does not recognize it as a news organization that is engaged in the production of original news-to Meta for reconsideration. "The government does not believe that Narcity is a news organization, so why would Meta?" Two days later it regained control of its Facebook and Instagram pages.

Workarounds, circumventions, and modified hyperlinks

The ban made it difficult for news outlets and emergency officials to get information out to the public during public safety emergencies. Over the last year, officials noted that misinformation about the fires was rife on social media, encouraging the public to tune in to radio or to live blogs for accurate updates on the dozens of wildfires burning across Western Canada. As a wildfire closed in around the city of Yellowknife, Ollie Williams, the editor of Yellowknife-based news station Cabin Radio, got around the Meta ban by posting a live blog.

So, with news no longer accessible on Meta platforms, Canadians have turned to creative ways to share information that is important to them. The Media Ecosystem Observatory study revealed prior to the ban, there were about 19 posts per week with Canadian news screenshots. After the ban, this number surged to an average of 68 posts per week.

Canadians continued to share and circulate news through direct links to an X (formerly Twitter) post, which then links to the news website. They also copy and paste text.

Another way Canadians shared news on Meta platforms was by making a video with a news story in the background, talking about or responding to the events, Bridgman said. "That person, that influencer is producing engagement on the website using news content, and so they are distributing the news content."

CJSW's Kamis saw CJSW spelled out phonetically as a workaround. "It's so funny. We can be on Threads because nobody's on Threads, but this is how cynical the business model is. We're allowed to be on Threads because no one's on Threads."

The future of media and news consumers at risk

Long-term ramifications for publishers are emerging, including obstacles for new launches, future growth and reaching some communities with news. According to Beers, Facebook is often the only major means of distributing information in rural, non-metropolitan areas in Canada. Many First Nations live in rural areas and Facebook acts as their source of news.

"In rural places, they're cut off. And because Facebook purchased social license to be the place where you shared information, other alternative forms of news did not grow there," he said. "Why would I start up a small little website in Fort Nelson or something when everyone's on Facebook sharing news?… These places are deprived. It'll take years, if ever, for them to come up with an alternative."

The Observatory's report also highlights what Bridgman called "a collective shrug," among Canadians. Instead of actively seeking out news from reliable sources, there is a growing expectation that information will find its way to people through their existing social networks and everyday media consumption.

The behavior highlights a "news will find me" attitude. However, he said that Canadians aren't getting their news on Facebook and Instagram any longer, so the thought is that they must be getting it somewhere else. Unfortunately, "we have very little evidence to suggest Canadians are doing that at all," Bridgman said. "Gone are the days when you would seek out information actively, you would be an active participant in that process."

Meta's news ban in Canada has had a profound impact on the media landscape, though only 22% of Canadians are aware that the ban exists, according to the MEO study. It resulted in a dramatic and immediate impact on traffic, a decline in revenue, views and engagement and diminished trust, underscoring the need for new strategies to engage audiences outside of social platforms.

"I don't think anyone looks at this and thinks this is good. It has hurt Canadian viewership of news. It has hurt Canadian news organizations. It has hurt journalism in that sense. It has hurt the ability to hold truth to power. None of that is good," Bridgman said.

The situation Canadian news publishers find themselves in emphasizes the need for innovative business models that do not rely heavily on social media platforms for distribution and revenue.

If journalism is crucial for a healthy democracy, then we need to find ways to support its news-gathering efforts, at arms length from government, Bachynski said. Bachynski suggested implementing a taxation policy whereby digital ads and services are purchased, and a 'journalism' tax is applied to it, which could significantly bolster news gathering and reporting. Lapointe also mentioned the possibility of subsidizing innovations around business models.

However, as he and others have noted, the need for smart regulatory interventions becomes urgent when news organizations' survival is tied to the whims of tech giants.

"Having this third party mediator between the content is highly risky and many have been saying that for years. And here is the proof in the pudding: relying on an external company to manage that relationship puts you at extreme vulnerability. If they decide to pull the rug out, that's what happens," Bridgman continued.

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