An Ontario man drove across the border to the U.S. in an attempt to view Canadian news that is no longer available ever since the Online News Act passed.
Youtuber and TikToker Joseph DeBenedictis posted a video to LinkedIn in which he drove across the Peace Bridge to Buffalo, N.Y. to see if he could access Canadian news content no longer available on social media north of the border, thanks to Meta’s and Google’s response to Bill C-18.
Once across, DeBendictis pulled over onto a residential street and pulled out his phone. He refreshed his Instagram feed and with a look of shock on his face, saw his feed once again filled with Canadian news content.
“Oh my god, there it is. Look at that,” said DeBenedictis in the video. “Oh, I’ve missed all the Canadian news.”
The Online News Act or Bill C-18, was brought in by the Trudeau government for the purpose of allegedly saving small news outlets from going out of business by forcing tech giants like Meta and Google to compensate them for content users post and share on their platforms.
Meta instead removed all news links from their platforms in response.
“We have repeatedly shared that in order to comply with Bill C-18 … content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, will no longer be available to people accessing our platforms in Canada,” wrote Meta in a statement to the media.
Meta began removing all news content and links from their users’ feeds for those located in Canada on Aug. 1, 2023. The company said news will remain absent from their platforms until the bill is reversed.
