Meta to block news from Facebook, Instagram in Canada

As the Canadian government passed Bill C-18, the Online News Act, Meta (formerly Facebook) has confirmed that it will discontinue news content on Facebook and Instagram for all users in the country.

"Today, we are confirming that news availability will be ended on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada prior to the Online News Act (Bill C-18) taking effect," Meta said on Thursday.

"We have repeatedly shared 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," it added.

The passed bill will require tech companies such as Meta and Google to negotiate with and pay news publishers for their content. Earlier this month, Meta warned if Bill C-18 gets passed into law, it will remove news content from the apps.

The company also announced that they were conducting product tests to help them build an effective product solution to end news availability as a result of C-18.

As of Thursday, those efforts remain ongoing and "currently impact a small percentage of users in Canada". However, the company said that the changes affecting news content will not otherwise impact Meta's products and services in Canada.

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