Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Facebook of putting “profits ahead of people’s safety”.
He hit out after the firm blocked news amid the devastating wildfires sweeping the nation’s Northwest Territories and British Columbia after Canadian law forcing it to share profit with news outlets.
Wildfire evacuees and workers have said the ban has impacted their ability to share potentially life-saving news with each other and Mr Trudeau blasted during a TV press conference on Monday (21.08.23): “It is so inconceivable that a company like Facebook is choosing to put corporate profits ahead of ensuring that local news organizations can get up-to-date information to Canadians, and reach them where Canadians spend a lot of their time; online, on social media, on Facebook.”
Around 60,000 people across the Northwest Territories and British Columbia have been placed under evacuation orders since the weekend, according to the most recent numbers from Canadian officials.
Mr Trudeau has described the devastation wreaked by the wildfires as “apocalyptic”.
Canada’s heritage minister Pascale St-Onge said in a post on social media Meta is blocking “essential information” for users, adding it is being done despite the law, dubbed Bill C-18 or the Online News Act, not yet going into effect.
In an earlier post, she called Meta’s decision “reckless”.
Facebook’s parent-company Meta started to block news links from Facebook and Instagram in Canada in response to recently-passed legislation in the country that requires tech companies to negotiate payments to news organisations for hosting their content.
Meta has branded the law “fundamentally flawed legislation that ignores the realities of how our platforms work".
In a statement, it added the law forces the company “to end access to news content in order to comply with the legislation”.
It added it has activated a ‘Safety Check’ feature on its platform for people living in evacuated areas, which lets users mark themselves safe and access “reputable information, including content from official government agencies”, according to a spokesperson for the company.
Data suggests around 77 per cent of Canadians use Facebook, and one in four of those users rely on it for news.
In a company blog, Meta has stated, the legislation “misrepresents the value news outlets receive when choosing to use our platforms”.
