A Canadian news company has been unblocked on Facebook and Instagram – thanks, in a strange way, to the federal government.
Narcity Media Group, which covers most of Canada and publishes stories in French and English, made the announcement of its return to the social media platforms today.
News has been blocked on Meta websites in Canada since last August, when the American tech giant said it was not willing to pay for content posted by journalists, as required by the Liberal government’s Online News Act.
But Narcity revealed today that it has become perhaps the only media company in Canada to have its Facebook and Instagram pages reactivated.
Its victory came after the federal government made the “arbitrary” determination that Narcity was not “engaged” in the production of enough original news content, the firm’s CEO, Chuck Lapointe, said in a social media post.
That determination was made when he applied for Narcity to be recognized as what Ottawa calls a “Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization.”
Being recognized as such entitles media companies to various subsidies, including the Canadian Journalism Labour Tax Credit, which pays as much as 35 per cent of journalists’ wages up to a maximum salary of $85,000 a year.
“At this point, it’s clear they have no idea what they are doing and any energy spent on trying to get our Government to understand the realities of how digital media operates in 2024 is a futile exercise,” Lapointe explained in his post.
“That led us to think, if the Government doesn’t consider us a news organization, why would Meta?”
Lapointe decided, therefore, to leverage the government’s declaration that Narcity was not a news organization – by sending that declaration to Meta. Meta has said that it is guided by the federal government when it comes to determining what is and isn’t news in Canada.
Remarkably, it worked.
“I hope that the news of our re-instatement on Meta will trigger a re-evaluation of the Online News Act and allow the option for people to opt-out if they don’t see the business benefits of participating,” he explained in his post, referring to the “Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization” classification.
“We should’ve done this earlier.”
The loss of Facebook and Instagram has been devastating for media companies across Canada, with a study released yesterday suggesting they have suffered a 43 per cent decline in engagement.
Aware of the suffering experienced by media firms, the federal government has offered hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies for newsrooms.
To qualify for the prize of the Canadian Journalism Labour Tax Credit, however, firms must be approved by a government-appointed panel of people who class themselves as experts on journalism.
That’s the hurdle at which Narcity, like NowMedia and many other news companies, fell, with the panel deciding that the firm did not produce enough “original content” to qualify. Lapointe rejected that assessment, explaining: “Nowhere in the legislation do they mention a minimum or percentage amount required.”
When NowMedia raised this apparent flaw in the system with Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge, she said only that “there are some published criteria around how to receive those tax credits.”
Law professor Michael Geist, an expert on Bill C-18, is one of many critics of the federal government to argue that “the line is at best blurry” between outlets that qualify and outlets that don’t.
The federal government, for its part, has claimed the Online News Act is necessary to preserve democracy and ensure newsrooms are properly funded.
When asked in May about the Online News Act and Meta’s blocking of news in Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told NowMedia that Meta was entirely to blame for the damage done to the country’s media.
Dozens of outlets have gone under over the last year, with some explicitly blaming the news ban and the resulting decline in advertising revenue.
Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre, Central Okanagan MPs Tracy Gray and Dan Albas, the BC NDP government (numerous times), BC United Leader Kevin Falcon and BC Conservatives Leader John Rustad are among the many prominent figures to have highlighted the situation.
The CRA has been approached for comment.
NowMedia has also requested an interview with Lapointe.
