As wildfires rage across the vast, politely apologetic wilderness of Canada and residents scramble for information more useful than “that thing looks like smoke,” the Canadian government has asked Meta to kindly reconsider its rather bold decision to block news content on its platforms. Meta, formerly Facebook before its midlife crisis, began blocking news in Canada earlier this month in a standoff over the Online News Act, a law that requires tech giants to pay news organizations for their content. It’s essentially the modern digital version of saying, “If you’re going to eat at our buffet, at least help with the tab.”
Minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge, who presumably has had more placid weeks, expressed frustration with Meta’s timing, which, in a rather poetic sense of irony, has coincided with one of Canada’s worst wildfire seasons to date. St-Onge noted that during crises, timely news updates are less of a luxury and more of a “please tell me whether I need to evacuate or just close my windows” kind of necessity. The minister called Meta’s action “reckless” before noting that companies profiting from sharing news might occasionally consider being accountable to the societies they serve. Radical, indeed.
In response, Meta has remained as unmovable as a boulder on a hiking trail, insisting that the law is the villain here, not the valiant tech platform simply minding its algorithms. Critics argue, however, that a company blocking timely information during an emergency while simultaneously bathing in user data profits does tilt the scales of public goodwill in unfortunate directions. At least three Canadian provinces—British Columbia, Alberta and parts of the North—are facing wildfires the size of small cities, and yet users searching for updates on Facebook might find themselves reading their uncle’s vacation photos instead.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, with the calm exasperation of a man who expected slightly fewer fires both literal and metaphorical this summer, joined the chorus calling on Meta to reverse course, saying that denying access to critical news information is, in rather diplomatic Canadian terms, “not just irresponsible… it is dangerous.” One might imagine some emphasis was placed on the period.
As Meta defends its stance and the government presses on in what is starting to look like a very Canadian staring contest, emergency agencies continue their heroic effort to inform citizens through every available avenue that does not involve a Zuckerberg-owned interface.
Because when the forest is on fire, the last thing you need is an algorithm that thinks you should see a quinoa salad recipe instead of your evacuation route.