Meta faces Canadian watchdog probe

Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge
Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge
REUTERS
Canada’s antitrust watchdog is investigating Meta’s move to block Canadian news on its platforms. The Competition Bureau confirmed it is doing a “preliminary review” on the same day that a consortium of Canadian news outlets asked it “to use its investigative and prosecutorial tools to protect competition and prohibit Meta from continuing to block Canadians’ access to news content.”

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, started blocking news articles for Canadians in response to a federal law that would force it to share revenue with news outlets. The law won’t take effect for six months, but Meta has reacted aggressively. Rather than comply or consult with the government about next steps, it has moved to just block news links, arguing that people don’t come to the site for that purpose. The federal government has denounced the move.

"We’re going to keep standing our ground,” said Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge. “After all, if the government can’t stand up for Canadians against tech giants, who will?”

Both Meta and Alphabet, which owns Google, have said they will block news rather than pay for it, although Google has not responded as aggressively.

Observers think both companies have reason to be uneasy about setting a precedent that governments in other jurisdictions might emulate. But so far, the tech giants appear to be winning the game of chicken. In June, a California link tax bill stalled in the legislature and a similar bill seems to be stuck in Congress.

Canadian media outlets have seen their traffic from Facebook cut — some have seen their page views halved — which has a knock-on effect on potential advertising revenue. But they should not hold their breath hoping to be rescued by the Competition Bureau, according to an analysis by University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist, an expert in e-commerce law, who described the industry’s complaint as “exceptionally weak.”

More from GZERO Media

Listen: In seven short weeks, the Trump administration has completely reshaped US foreign policy and upended trade alliances. Will China benefit from US retrenchment and increasing global uncertainty, or will its struggling economy hold it back? On the GZERO World Podcast, Bill Bishop, a China analyst and author of the Sinocism newsletter, joins Ian Bremmer for a wide-ranging conversation about China—its domestic priorities, global administration, and whether America’s retreat from global commitments is opening new doors for Beijing.

German Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz speaks to the media after he reached an agreement with the Greens on a massive increase in state borrowing just days ahead of a parliamentary vote next week, in Berlin, Germany, on March 14, 2025.
REUTERS/Axel Schmidt

Germany’s election-winning center-right Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union, led by Friedrich Merz, and the Social Democrats have reached a preliminary agreement with the Green Party on a deal to exclude defense spending from the country’s constitutional debt break and establish a dedicated $545 billion fund for infrastructure investments.

A Russian army soldier walks along a ruined street of Malaya Loknya settlement, which was recently retaken by Russia's armed forces in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Kursk region, on March 13, 2025.

Russian Defence Ministry/Handout via REUTERS

The Russian leader has conditions of his own for any ceasefire with Ukraine, and he also wants a meeting with Donald Trump.

Mahmoud Khalil speaks to members of the media about the Revolt for Rafah encampment at Columbia University on June 1, 2024.

REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

The court battle over whether the US can deport Mahmoud Khalil, the 30-year-old Palestinian-Algerian activist detained in New York last Saturday, began this week in Manhattan. Khalil, an outspoken activist for Palestinian rights at Columbia University, was arrested Saturday at his apartment in a university-owned building at Columbia University by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, and he is now being held in an ICE detention center in Louisiana.

The Israeli Air Force launched an airstrike on Thursday, targeting a building in the Mashrou Dummar area of Damascus.
(Photo by Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto)

An Israeli airstrike destroyed a residential building on the outskirts of Damascus on Thursday in the latest Israeli incursion into post-Assad Syria.

Lars Klingbeil (l), Chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, and Friedrich Merz, CDU Chairman and Chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, talk at the end of the 213th plenary session of the 20th legislative period in the German Bundestag.

Germany’s government is in a state of uncertainty as the outgoing government races to push through a huge, and highly controversial, new spending package before its term ends early this spring.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, a Republican, speaks as the U.S. vice president visits East Palestine, Ohio, U.S., February 3, 2025.
Rebecca Droke/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

On Wednesday, Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin redefined the agency’s mission, stating that its focus is to “lower the cost of buying a car, heating a home, and running a business.”