(Ottawa) The Minister of Heritage, Pascale St-Onge, is delighted to see that a significant number of Quebecers have abandoned social networks and that more of them are consulting traditional news media in the wake of the decision of Meta to block news on its platforms. The web giant on Tuesday requested an exemption from Bill C-18 to once again authorize local media content on Facebook and Instagram.

“If we were excluded from the Online News Act, so the requirements of that legislation did not apply to us, if there was an exclusion for local journalism, we could bring it back to our platforms.” , argued Meta’s head of public policy in Canada, Rachel Curran.

She was testifying at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics alongside representatives from Google and X. They had been summoned to answer questions about collecting data and sharing it with foreign entities.

The Bloc Québécois ethics spokesperson, René Villemure, questioned Ms. Curran about Meta’s decision to block news on its platforms. “We are killing the industry and I think that the responsibility is at least shared,” he pointed out.

Meta refuses to pay “an unknown, uncapped amount for content that has no commercial value,” Curran reiterated.

The government recently reached an agreement with Google which will pay a sum of 100 million per year, indexed, to a collective which will be responsible for distributing it to the media. The following week, Canadian Heritage officials met with representatives of Meta, who remained firm in his position. Regulations for the implementation of the law are expected soon.

The absence of verified news on Facebook and Instagram raises fears of an upsurge in misinformation on these platforms. The company said it disabled nearly 2 billion fake accounts globally this year.

More Quebecers are consulting traditional news media since this news blockade.

In an interview with La Presse, Minister St-Onge affirmed that this turnaround was predictable since Meta made an action that broke the bond of trust between users.

According to a survey by researchers from Laval University unveiled Tuesday, the blocking of news on Meta has contributed to undermining the confidence of Quebecers in the news they consume on social networks.

Among other findings, the proportion of Quebec adults who trust news and current affairs broadcast on social networks increased from 38% in 2022 to 31% in 2023, according to the NETendances survey which was published by the Académie de la digital transformation. But the proportion of the Quebec population who trust traditional news media has remained stable at 73%.

“From the start, I thought it was a breach of the social contract between Facebook and its users to tell Quebecers and Canadians: “You can no longer share important news with your family and friends.” I hope that we will continue to have such results because Facebook would really be better if people had access to verified information, based on facts and which meets journalistic standards,” said Minister St-Onge.

Recall that Meta decided to block access to news on its platforms in August as a protest against the adoption of Bill C-18 on digital news.

In the NETendances study, we also see that in 2023 4% of adults have abandoned social networks as the most often used source of information. At the same time, a gain of 4% is observed among websites offering information content.

“We know we have problems with misinformation. The best way to fight this is to have quality journalism,” said the Minister of Heritage.

“I think people, in a climate that’s hyper polarized, at some point it’s not healthy to live in this kind of hyper polarized climate all the time and I think people are looking for more content balanced that helps them form their own opinions on an issue. The platforms that are most likely to succeed are those that will give generous space to information content and that will help support journalism everywhere in democratic countries. »

Ms. St-Onge said she hopes that the results of the study in Quebec are the start of a major trend that will also be felt in the rest of the country. She does not rule out the idea of ​​commissioning an in-depth study to find out if this is the case.

“We will check with the ministry if there is reason to dig into this a little more. But the focus is on implementing the Digital News Act at the moment. »