TORONTO – CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO Catherine Tait has written an open letter to Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, asking the social media giant to end its blocking of Canadian news content and accounts on its Facebook and Instagram platforms for communities currently dealing with the wildfire crisis in Canada’s North.
“As you are undoubtedly aware, many smaller and remote communities in Canada are currently experiencing unprecedented natural disasters which threaten human life and property. At this writing, entire communities are under evacuation orders due to wildfires — including the territorial capital of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories and parts of British Columbia. In fact, there are over 600 active fires in those regions alone. In such moments, the need for reliable, trusted, and up-to-date information can literally be the difference between life and death,” Tait writes in the letter, published Tuesday on CBC’s website.
Canadians living in the North, including Indigenous peoples, have come to rely on Facebook for timely news about their communities, Tait says, adding they are currently being denied this information on Meta’s platforms.
“We are deeply concerned that Meta’s recent decision to block news accounts in Canada impairs awareness in those communities to rapidly changing conditions and emergency orders — and worse, creates a vacuum for misinformation and disinformation without counterbalancing news from Canadian media organizations on those platforms,” Tait writes.
She notes that, in addition to the main Facebook and Instagram accounts for CBC News and Radio-Canada Info, the public broadcaster also has specific accounts on those platforms designed to serve communities in Canada’s North and Indigenous peoples — accounts that are now blocked.
“Given the emergency conditions, we are calling on you to exempt people in these communities from Meta’s current blockage of news accounts in Canada so that they are able to share critical news on those accounts, including evacuation order information,” Tait says.
“Such a change would have no impact on the application of the Online News Act in the short-term, nor would it trigger any payments from negotiated agreements. The legislation does not come into effect until mid-December; and CBC/Radio-Canada does not have an existing compensation deal in place with Meta. As we saw during the pandemic, extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures in order to protect lives,” she adds.
“Time is of the essence. I urge you to consider taking the much-needed humanitarian action and immediately lift your ban on vital Canadian news and information to communities dealing with this wildfire emergency.”
