Facebook and Instagram without news in Canada's election campaign
There is an election in Canada in a few days, but Facebook continues to block hyperlinks to news sites. Others are filling the gap, a report now shows.
(Image: chainarong06/Shutterstock.com)
A year and a half after Facebook began blocking links to news stories in Canada, the social network is dominated by extremely partisan and disinformational posts, including from right-wing organizations, ahead of the upcoming general election. The New York Times reports this and adds that scams involving cryptocurrencies and advertisements imitating legitimate news sources are also widespread there. Although such content has long been part of election campaigns elsewhere, it is currently particularly present on Facebook and Instagram in Canada because established news media have been banned from there.
Blocking instead of paying
In August 2023, the platforms of the US company Meta began blocking hyperlinks to news sources at home and abroad. The reason for this is a new tax on the promotion of news and even on the promotion of access to news. Meta was "forced" to make this difficult business decision in order to comply with the law, the US newspaper once again quotes Meta's reasoning. If the law were changed, this could also change. At the same time, however, the newspaper has calculated that Meta would have to pay around 44 million US dollars a year in Canada – with an annual turnover of more than 164 billion US dollars.
Videos by heise
One year after the decision, however, only 22 percent of all people in Canada knew that messages had been banned from Facebook and Instagram. Even those who do go there for information were unaware of the decision. This is probably one of the reasons why people there do not look for news elsewhere, according to a study at the time. The New York Times report now supplements this finding with the realization that some players are definitely benefiting. For example, the reach of the right-wing organization "Canada Proud" has recently grown enormously – in parallel to the reach of the leaders of the two major parties. The site repeatedly refers to traditional media, but adds misleading and simply false details.
According to the newspaper, the content is also disseminated by means of paid advertisements. This means is also used to distribute AI-generated content to many users. The feeds were literally flooded with it. They often look like reports from traditional media, but the links lead to fake pages that only imitate them. The media themselves have switched to TikTok to promote their content. Facebook is seen there as a platform that is no longer relevant for news. The report suggests that this does not seem to have reached the general public.
(mho)
