Canadian Media Company Cuts Ties With Facebook and Instagram Advertising
Quebecor, a telecommunications and media company, announced on Wednesday that it will remove its advertisements from Facebook and Instagram. This decision comes in response to Meta Platforms’ recent action of blocking access to news on these social media platforms in Canada. The move by Meta Platforms was prompted by a law that mandates payments to be made to local news publishers.
The “Online News Act,” or House of Commons Bill C-18, introduced in April last year, set rules to force companies like Meta and Alphabet-owned Google to negotiate commercial deals and pay news publishers for their content.
Google and Meta previously announced that they would block access to news articles in Canada if the bill is passed.
Quebecor, which also owns media and newspapers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how much it spends on ads on Facebook and Instagram.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Canada’s media industry has called for tighter regulation of Internet giants to help news companies recoup financial losses suffered during the years when Facebook and Google gained a bigger share of the online advertising market.
