Trudeau blasts Meta for blocking news links amid raging wildfire

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
22 Aug 2023 16:13

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Facebook has chosen profit over the people's security, while the latter responds by saying they only complied with Bill C-18 passed by Canadian legislation earlier in June.

A scorched car rests in the yard of a home destroyed by a wildfire in the East Prairie Metis Settlement, Alberta, on Tuesday, July 4, 2023. (AP)

Meta's Facebook was criticized by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after they put "corporate profits ahead of people’s safety” after the platform continued to block content about live and ongoing wildfires that have been raging across Canada’s Northwest Territories and British Columbia.

During a news conference on Monday, Trudeau blasted the company saying, “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."

Trudeau also stressed that while Facebook’s decision to block news content is “bad for democracy” in the long run, it remained that “right now, in an emergency situation, where up-to-date local information is more important than ever, Facebook’s putting corporate profits ahead of people’s safety,”

The wildfires were dubbed "apocalyptic" as almost 60,000 people were placed under evacuation orders since this weekend, CNN reported, citing Canadian officials.

As a result of recently-passed law in Canada mandating tech companies to negotiate payment with news organizations for hosting their content, Facebook's parent company, Meta, began filtering news links from Facebook and Instagram earlier this month and thus preventing the sharing of highly valuable information to Canadian citizens.

The new legislation in Canada “forces us to end access to news content in order to comply with the legislation, but we remain focused on making our technologies available,” a Meta spokesperson underscored, making reference to Meta's Safety Check feature which the spokesperson noted was used by more than 45,000 users.

Moreover, the statement emphasized that Canadians “continue to use our technologies in large numbers to connect with their communities and access reputable information, including content from official government agencies, emergency services, and non-governmental organizations.”

It is worth noting that the Online News Act, also known as Bill C-18, was given the final approval by Canada's legislation body earlier in June. The bill claimed to be put in place to support the sustainability of news organizations by regulating “digital news intermediaries with a view to enhancing fairness in the Canadian digital news marketplace.”