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Facebook turned off the news in Canada. What happened next?

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The Online News Act in Canada, similar to a law introduced in Australia, aimed to make tech giants like Google and Meta pay news outlets for their content appearing in search results and social media feeds. However, while Google has agreed to pay C$100m ($74m) annually into a government-run fund for Canadian newsrooms, Meta has blocked news links from its apps since August 2021. This has had a severe impact on news organizations, with Canadian national news outlet Facebook pages losing 64% of engagement and local outlets losing 85%. Despite the news blackout, Meta's ad revenue has grown 19% in the US and Canada, causing concerns over the impact on local news content and the potential for misinformation to fill the gap. News outlets are adapting by exploring alternative ways to reach readers, such as email newsletters and mobile apps, while some readers are sharing screenshots of articles instead of links. Canada's communications regulator will determine later this year if Meta's link-blocking exempts it from making payments, but the experiences in Canada may make other countries reconsider similar legislation.