The Day The News Sites Died…

By Robert Thomas

It was a move threatened by Meta - the parent company of Facebook and Instagram - in response to the new Online News Act and sadly it has occurred on the local scene.

This afternoon Meta blocked access to Canadian users of Facebook to both the news sites discovermoosejaw.com and the Moose Jaw Express but left up their subsidiary sites to Meta access.

The move has taken place because the Online News Act would see Meta - and other social media companies - having to pay for all news shared on their platform.

The Liberal government claims social media companies are taking the bulk of advertising funding while at the same time news services in Canada are reducing their services and eliminating employees due to a loss of advertising funding to the social media giants.

Screenshota of what greets Facebook users based in Canada when they try to access the local radio stations news feed

Screenshot of what greets Facebook users based in Canada when they try to access the local newspaper’s news feed

According to Facebook it will affect Canadian users In the following ways:

• You can no longer share or view news links or content on Facebook, including news articles and audio-visual content posted by news outlets.

• You can no longer see links or content from any news outlet Pages, even if you search for them or follow them.

Facebook also indicates it defines what a media outlet is by outlets which could potentially benefit under the Online News Service - something MJ Independent does not qualify for.