Québecor has pulled advertisements from Meta following the company’s decision to block Canadians’ access to local news content on its platforms.
Last week, Meta said it was working towards the move following the passage of Bill C-18. Known as the Online News Act, it forces platforms like Meta to pay Canadian publishers to share their news content.
Québecor criticized the move, calling it an abuse of Meta’s position in the online advertising market.
“Any move by Meta to circumvent Canadian law, block news for its users or discriminate against Canadian media content on its platforms, through its algorithms or otherwise, cannot be tolerated,” the company said in a press release.
Québecor’s advertising hiatus applies to Facebook and Instagram and will be in effect “until further notice.”
The company encourages others to follow suit. Doing so will “make clear their disagreement with Meta’s affront to public policy and the news media through their advertising placement choices.”
Like Meta, Google has also vowed to take action by removing links to Canadian news content when the bill goes into effect. It’s unclear if Québecor will make a similar move with Google.
Source: Québecor
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