GATINEAU, OTTAWA and TORONTO – The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada and print and digital news association News Media Canada (NMC) have jointly applied to the Competition Bureau to investigate Meta’s alleged abuse of its dominant market position, after the social media giant last week began officially blocking news content in Canada on Facebook and Instagram.
Meta had threatened back in June to end news availability on its platforms in Canada in response to the passing of the Online News Act, and on Aug. 1 it began the process to do that, saying the changes would be implemented over the next few weeks.
“Meta’s practices are clearly designed to discipline Canadian news companies, prevent them from participating in and accessing the advertising market, and significantly reduce their visibility to Canadians on social media channels. Meta’s anticompetitive conduct, which has attracted the attention of regulators around the world, will strengthen its already dominant position in advertising and social media distribution and harm Canadian journalism,” reads a joint statement from the CAB, CBC/Radio-Canada and NMC.
The three organizations submitted an application Aug. 7 to Commissioner of Competition Matthew Boswell, urging the Bureau to begin an inquiry under section 79 of the Competition Act into Meta’s blocking of news content and its “refusal to comply with Bill C-18” (i.e., the Online News Act), which requires web giants such as Meta and Google to negotiate compensation agreements with Canadian news organizations for news content that appears on their social media platforms.
“Instead of working with the Canadian government and news organizations to further the objectives of Bill C-18, Meta has chosen to actively inflict harm to news organizations, threating the viability and sustainability of the industry in Canada,” reads the application to the Competition Bureau.
The news organizations note in their joint statement that Meta’s Facebook and Instagram account for more than 70 per cent of the online social media market in Canada, meaning “Meta effectively has substantial control over access to Canadian news,” they say.
“Through its decision to block news content from its digital platforms, Meta seeks to impair Canadian news organizations’ ability to compete effectively in the news publishing and online advertising markets,” their application claims.
“If Meta is allowed to proceed unchecked, it could inflict significant damage to Canadian news organizations’ ability to offer quality news services to Canadians, which is critical to the functioning of a free and democratic society.”
In their application, the CAB, CBC and NMC point to similar news-blocking threats made previously by Google and Meta in France and Australia, where the web giants initially refused to negotiate agreements to compensate news companies but eventually relented.
“Canada is not the first country where web giants like Meta have attempted to leverage their dominant positions through the blocking strategy Meta is employing in Canada. This type of blocking strategy or other means to unilaterally dictate the rules of the game are widespread and can be seen on a global scale,” the application says.
In the case of France, “It took the intervention of the French Competition Authority to get Google to negotiate fair agreements with news publishers in good faith. Acknowledging a situation of abuse of a dominant position, the French Competition Authority ordered Google to negotiate with publishers and news agencies the remuneration due to them under the law on neighbouring rights for the reproduction and distribution of their content. Facebook subsequently followed suit and negotiated similar agreements with French news publishers. Without the intervention of the French Competition Authority, Google (and likely Facebook) would have continued its anti-competitive behaviour.”
The three applicants say in their statement they are asking the Competition Bureau “to use its investigative and prosecutorial tools to protect competition and prohibit Meta from continuing to block Canadians’ access to news content. The applicants also request that Meta refrain from discriminating, by algorithm or by any other means, against content from Canadian news organizations on its digital platforms accessible in Canada.”
