MONTREAL – The federal government, Cogeco and Quebecor announced Wednesday they are pulling all their advertising investments from Meta’s platforms after the social media company banned news linking in response to the passing of the Online News Act.
“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,” Quebecor said in a press release Wednesday morning.
“In view of Meta’s categorical refusal to enter into negotiations, Quebecor announces that, effective immediately and until further notice, it is withdrawing all advertising by its subsidiaries and business units from Facebook and Instagram.”
“Quebecor also calls on businesses, governments and institutions to make clear their disagreement with Meta’s affront to public policy and the news media through their advertising placement choices,” Quebecor added.
Quebecor owns a few news products, including its daily Le Journal, 24 Heures, and cable news channel TVA Nouvelles.
At noon Wednesday, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez announced the federal government is suspending all government advertising on Facebook. “We cannot continue paying advertising dollars to Meta while they refuse to pay their fair share to Canadian news organizations,” the minister said in a tweet.
Cogeco followed in announcing that it would also be withdrawing its advertising investments in the company’s Facebook and Instagram platforms.
And it appears more companies are expected to toe that line.
“In support of this legislation and the regulatory process that will soon be launched for its implementation, Cogeco, along with many other industry members, has decided to withdraw its advertising investments from Meta platforms,” Cogeco said in the release.
“Cogeco also calls on all levels of government to follow suit and temporarily stop investing in advertising on Meta platforms,” the company, which owns a number of radio properties, continued. “In the case of the federal government, $11 million is spent each year, while only $10 million from those same budgets is invested in all Canadian broadcasters. It is time to regroup and show consistency by increasing advertising spending in Canadian media rather than favouring web giants.”
In response to bill C-18, the Online News Act, becoming law last month, Meta and Google said they would no longer be hosting Canadian news links on their platforms, a move that surprised Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez.
The law requires foreign technology platforms to compensate news publishers for hosting their news stories.
The platforms have long held that news organizations benefit from the reach of the social media platforms to get more eyeballs on their work. But the government has maintained that the platforms host the content and absorb all the advertising dollars when users don’t click through the links.
Cartt has asked if Quebecor has and will remove ads from Google.
