Information Ecosystem Brief • Old News, New Reality: A Year of Meta's News Ban in Canada

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Contents
Executive summary

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Context

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Question

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Analysis5

How did the blocking of news affect Canadian news organizations?

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How did the ban affect Canadians?

6Conclusions

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Endnotes

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Contributors

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Methodology

9Media Ecosystem Observatory

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Information Ecosystem Brief • Old News, New Reality: A Year of Meta's News Ban in Canada

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Executive summary

Sommaire exécutif

As Canada marks one year since Meta’s unprecedented
decision to block news access on Facebook andInstagram for Canadian users, the Media Ecosystem
Observatory offers a data-driven examination of the ban’s
impact on Canadians and Canadian news media. Using
survey and social media data, we evaluate the extent towhich the ban has shaped the character of online news in
Canada and changed the behaviour of news producers
and consumers.

Un an après la décision sans précédent prise par Meta debloquer les nouvelles sur Facebook et Instagram pour lesutilisateurs Canadiens, l'Observatoire de l'écosystème
médiatique publie un rapport de son impact sur les
Canadiens et les médias d’information canadiens. À l’aide
de sondages et de données provenant des réseauxsociaux, nous évaluons la mesure dans laquellel'interdiction a façonné le paysage de l'information en
ligne au pays et modifié le comportement de ceux qui
produisent et consomment l'information.

Key takeaways:
Almost half of news media engagement has
disappeared - Canadian news outlets have lost
85% of their engagement on Facebook andInstagram. This loss has not been compensated byincreases on other social media platforms, resulting
in an overall decrease of 43% in engagement.
Almost one third of local news outlets are now
inactive - The ban has reshaped the media
landscape in Canada, with 212 or approximately
30% of local news outlets in Canada previously
active on social media now inactive.
Three quarters of the Canadian public is unawareof the ban - Only 22% of Canadians know that news
is banned on Facebook and Instagram. Evenamong users of the platforms and those who say
they get news from the platform, a majority do notknow about the ban.
News is still being shared on Facebook andInstagram - Despite the ban, news organization
content is still available on Meta platforms throughwork-around strategies like screengrabs, with 36%
of Canadian users reporting encountering news orlinks to news on Facebook or Instagram. Thisarguably should make Meta subject to therequirements of the Online News Act.
Less news is being consumed by Canadians Overall, Canadians are simply seeing less news
online - an estimated reduction of 11 million views
per day across Instagram and Facebook - due tothe ban. Canadians continue to learn about politics
and current events through Facebook andInstagram, but through a more biased and lessfactual lens than before and many Canadians do
not even realize the shift has occurred. They do notappear to be seeking news elsewhere.

Media Ecosystem Observatory

Principaux résultats du blocage desnouvelles par Meta :Chute de près de la moitié de l'engagement avec
les médias – Les médias canadiens ont perdu 85%
de leur engagement sur Facebook et Instagram.
Cette perte n’a pas été compensée par desaugmentations sur d’autres plateformes de médias
sociaux, ce qui se traduit par une baisse globale de
43 % de l’engagement.
Près du tiers des médias locaux sont désormais
inactifs – Le blocage a refaçonné le paysage
médiatique au Canada : 212 médias locaux, soit
environ 30 % de ceux qui étaient auparavant actifs
sur les médias sociaux, sont désormais inactifs.
Trois quarts des Canadiens ne sont pas au courant
du blocage – Seuls 22 % des Canadiens savent que
les nouvelles sont bloquées sur Facebook etInstagram. Même parmi les utilisateurs de ces
plateformes et ceux qui disent y trouver desnouvelles, la majorité ignore l'existence du blocage.
Les nouvelles sont toujours partagées sur
Facebook et Instagram – Malgré le blocage, lecontenu des médias d’information est toujours
disponible sur les plateformes Meta grâce à desstratégies de contournement telles que lescaptures d'écran, 36 % des utilisateurs canadiensdéclarant avoir trouvé des nouvelles ou des liensvers des nouvelles sur Facebook ou Instagram. On
pourrait donc affirmer que Meta devrait êtreassujetti aux exigences de la Loi sur les nouvelles enligne.
Les Canadiens consomment moins de nouvelles –Dans l'ensemble, les Canadiens voient tout
simplement moins de nouvelles en ligne en raisondu blocage – une réduction estimée à 11 millions devues par jour sur Instagram et Facebook. Les
Canadiens continuent de s'informer sur la politiqueet l'actualité via Facebook et Instagram, mais à
travers un prisme plus biaisé et moins factuelqu'auparavant, et beaucoup d'entre eux ne serendent même pas compte du changement qui
s'est opéré. Ils ne semblent pas chercher às'informer ailleurs.

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Information Ecosystem Brief • Old News, New Reality: A Year of Meta's News Ban in Canada

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Context
In June 2023, the Canadian government passed the Online
News Act, requiring large “digital news intermediaries” tonegotiate with and compensate Canadian news
organizations. Also known as Bill C-18 or An Act respecting
online communications platforms that make news
content available to persons in Canada, the Act outlines abargaining framework for digital platform companies andnews publishers and affirms the importance of enhancing“fairness in the Canadian digital news marketplace.”
Currently, only Google and Meta (the parent company ofsocial media platforms Instagram and Facebook) are
subject to the Act. Both companies, predictably, pushed
back against the legislation, calling it a “link tax” andarguing that it “puts at risk the free flow of information
online.” Both companies also threatened to end theavailability of news content on their services for Canadianusers. While Google negotiated a separate agreementwith the Canadian government, Meta followed through: on
August 9, 2023, the news (from both Canadian andInternational sources) disappeared from Facebook andInstagram for users in Canada.
Meta’s decision immediately sparked outcry – some of it
directed at the company itself, while the rest was directed
at the Liberal government for passing the Act in the firstplace. Within weeks of the ban, the CBC, the Canadian||||||||

Association of Broadcasters, and News Media Canada
swiftly filed an antitrust complaint against Meta, accusing
it of abusing its “already dominant position” by blocking
news content. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on
Meta to reverse the ban and allow Canadians to see news
content in the wake of one of the deadliest wildfire
seasons in Canadian history. In the months following theban, many news outlets saw a major decline in revenue
and readership, weakening an already vulnerable news
industry.
On the first anniversary of the end of news availability for
Facebook and Instagram users in Canada, we reflect upon
the effects on the Canadian information ecosystem. The
decision to block Canadian users from seeing news on twoof our most prevalent social media platforms evidently
shifted the flow of information online and the relationshipbetween the news, social media, and Canadians. Over the
past twelve months, we have closely monitored the effects
of Meta’s news ban, particularly on Canadian news
organizations and how Canadians engage with news andpolitical content online. The following brief expands uponthat research and provides the first comprehensive
report on what happened in Canada following Meta’s
news ban.¹

Question
This Information Ecosystem Brief aims to answer thequestion: What happened when Meta banned news for
Canadian users? We evaluate two dimensions to provide
a data-informed analysis of how the Canadianinformation ecosystem has been impacted by Meta’s
actions.
First, we ask: how have Canadian news organizations
been impacted by the ban? We evaluate their activity,
visibility, and engagement with their content across thefive major social media platforms used in Canada fornews: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and X/Twitter.
Second, we ask: how has the ban impacted Canadians
and their relationship to news and social media? We
evaluate their continued use of Meta platforms as well as
their awareness of the ban.

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Information Ecosystem Brief • Old News, New Reality: A Year of Meta's News Ban in Canada

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Analysis
How did the blocking of news affect Canadian
news organizations?
Prior to the ban, many Canadian news organizations,particularly local-level outlets, heavily relied on Facebook(and Instagram to a lesser degree) to promote theircontent and stay connected to their readership. Many did
not have social media profiles on any other platform dueto the difficulty of establishing an audience on a newplatform and the major costs required to create
audiovisual content for major platforms like YouTube and
TikTok.
The news ban was fully implemented across Facebook
and Instagram by August 9, 2023. The effects of the banwere quickly and severely felt by Canadian news
organizations, which experienced a sharp decrease in
online engagement.
Figure 1 compares activity of and engagement with
Canadian news outlets across the five major social media
platforms used by Canadians to get news: Facebook,
Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and X/Twitter. Panel A shows||||that, of the 770 news outlets active on social media in
June 2023, only 555 were still posting in 2024 on any
platform. Following the ban, 215 Canadian news
organizations (almost one quarter of all outlets) havegone dark on social media and no longer maintain an
active presence on any platform. Of these, 212 (98%) arelocal news organizations: 30% of the 713 Canadian local
news outlets who were previously active on social media
are no longer able to share their content and build theirreadership online.
Even though many news outlets are still active on otherplatforms (such as TikTok, X, and YouTube) and havemaintained international audiences on Facebook andInstagram, the ban has severely reduced the amount ofengagement received by Canadian news organizations.
Panel B shows that Canadian news organizations havelost 42.6% of their online engagement since the ban
across their social media footprint since the ban. This
represents approximately 11 million fewer views per day (5million for Facebook and 6 million for Instagram).²

Figure 1: Activity of and engagement with Canadian news outlets across Canadian social media platforms before and after the Meta news ban

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Information Ecosystem Brief • Old News, New Reality: A Year of Meta's News Ban in Canada

Panel C shows that Canadian news organizations havethus far been unable to make up the loss on otherplatforms. Across the other three, non-Meta platforms,
engagement (likes, comments, shares) has increased by
600,000 per month, primarily driven by a 24% increase in
TikTok engagement, with consistent Twitter/X engagement
year-over-year, and a 22% decrease in YouTube
engagement. Even accounting for this slight increase,engagement with Canadian news organizations has sunkdramatically as a result of the ban, with a total net loss of
8.2 million engagements per month. The ban has
effectively severed a key connection between the news
industry and Canadian public.

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Figure 2: Use of Meta platforms by Canadians and awareness of thenews ban

How did the ban affect Canadians?
Prior to the ban, millions of Canadians relied on news fromFacebook and Instagram, with these two platforms being
the number 1 and number 3 choices for Canadians(YouTube is number 2) who are increasingly saying thatthey rely primarily upon social media to become informed.
However, a year after the ban, a majority of Canadians arestill saying that they use Facebook and Instagram for
news.
Figure 2 Panel A uses survey data taken from July 2024
that shows self-reported usage of Meta platforms remains
high, with 86% of Canadians using either Facebook or
Instagram monthly. Panel B highlights that 70% of
Facebook users and 65% of Instagram users say they
continue to use that platform to read, watch, listen to, or
share the news - astonishing figures given that news
content is blocked on those platforms. Moreover, Panel C
shows that only half of those who use the platform fornews are even aware that content from news
organizations has been banned (more generally, only 35%
of platform users and 22% of all Canadians know about
the ban). A super-majority of Canadians as well as amajority of Meta-platform users in Canada, and eventhose who self-report using the platform for news, simply
do not know a news ban is in effect.
Given this lack of awareness, it is not surprising that
Canadians have not changed their behavior to substitutefor the loss of news content on Facebook and Instagram.
Using an analysis of social media engagement with
Canadian news organizations and politicians acrossplatforms over time, we tested to see if Canadians were
engaging with alternative sources of news on Facebook
and Instagram (e.g. Canadian politicians) or Canadian
news content on other platforms (e.g. TikTok, Twitter, andYouTube). We found no evidence of any substitution:
Canadian Facebook and Instagram users continued toengage with the platforms as they usually had, and theaccounts of Canadian politicians and news organizations
on other platforms saw similar levels of engagement as|||||

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before the ban. Canadians are simply consuming lessinformation directly from news organizations that produce
original reporting.
However, a puzzle remains: 36% of Meta-platform users in
Canada report seeing content from news organizations or
news links on the platforms in the past six months. In ourinvestigation, we identified a significant number of workarounds to the blocking of news content and links to news
websites, meaning that Canadian news organization
content continues to be shared on Meta platforms. Somehighly motivated news-sharers in Canada continue toshare links to news websites on Facebook, by, for example,
altering the URLs slightly (e.g., by adding a slash or
hyphen) and telling other users how to fix it in theirbrowser’s search bar. Others share links to posts by news
outlets on other platforms: for example, a news outlet may
still be posting articles on X (formerly Twitter), so a
Facebook user will share the link to the post on X, allowing
other users to follow the trail of URLs to the news article
itself.
Although impossible to know for certain, the mostcommon strategy may be the sharing of screen-grabs ofnews organization content. After the ban took effect, webegan observing Facebook Groups that had previously
frequently shared links to Canadian news organizations.
These Groups focused specifically on Canadian politics
and relied upon the sharing of news links to foster
discussion and debate, but managed to maintain aconsistent level of activity even after the ban. Given that||||www.meo.ca

Information Ecosystem Brief • Old News, New Reality: A Year of Meta's News Ban in Canada

news had previously been a major driver of engagementwith these Groups, we investigated.

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Figure 3: Continued use of Canadian news outlet content by political
discussion groups on Facebook

Rather than a massive surge in misinformed discussion
and sensationalist videos, we found a decent (butsmaller) volume of news content. In particular, however,the sharing of screenshots of news articles has exploded.
As shown in Figure 3, the volume of screenshots ofCanadian news articles tripled in the four months
immediately following the ban, generating such a large
amount of engagement that, although there are fewer
posts containing screenshots than there were posts withnews links prior to the ban, engagement with news
screenshots
matchedtheprevious
engagement
generated by news links.³
News content is thus still circulating among Canadianusers on Facebook and Instagram, although it isdramatically less present than the volume of news
available before the ban. Although most Canadians are
not aware of the ban, over half of Canadians still use
Facebook or Instagram for news and are severely
impacted by the reduced visibility of news content online.
Some highly-motivated Canadians seek news outside ofsocial media platforms through other means, either via
news subscriptions, digital news websites, or television andradio, and are likely not severely impacted by the ban.
However, active news seekers are the minority. The
average Canadian does not frequently consume news,
particularly about politics (in fact, 40% actively avoid it)
and will likely only become aware of current events bybeing incidentally exposed to content about it online.⁴
Much of this incidental exposure to news is facilitated bysocial media, such as through friends and family
discussing politics online or algorithmic feeds pushingtrending content whenever a major event happens. This
news exposure has been dramatically reduced due to theMeta news ban.

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Information Ecosystem Brief • Old News, New Reality: A Year of Meta's News Ban in Canada

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Conclusion
Meta blocked Canadians from seeing the news on its
platforms one year ago, delivering a major blow to an
already-struggling news industry – and democracy.
Since August 9, 2023, Canadian news outlets have seen asteep decline in online engagement, severely affecting
their ability to connect with and grow their readership,
source ad revenue, and inform the Canadian population.
The ban has succeeded in severely reducing the visibilityof Canadian news online.
Meanwhile, Canadians are increasingly relying on social
media to provide them with the news but may not beaware of the extent to which platform decisions shape theinformation they receive and indeed continue to treat
Meta’s platforms as a reliable source for news. But withreliable news less present, these platforms are simply not
as trustworthy as they used to be. Many Canadians do noteven realize that a shift has occurred.

Canadian politicians have continued to rely on Meta
products to reach their audiences. Discussion about
politics and current events persists among users ofFacebook and Instagram, but with significantly lesscredible and accurate news content to inform theconversation. With reports of AI-generated content
flooding social media, an unbiased fact-interest media ismore critical than ever. This inattentiveness anddisinterest of Canadians and especially politicians is adisservice to Canadian democracy. We simply cannot rely
on entities like Meta to act in the best interests ofCanadians and help support an informed and engaged
democracy.
A healthy news industry is a critical part of any
democracy: people need access to accurate, diverse,
trustworthy information that is presented without politicalbias. Due to the ban, the Canadian information ecosystem
is less able to facilitate that access and many Canadians
are simply unaware.

Endnotes¹ We refer to Meta’s decision to end news availability forusers of their platforms in Canada as “Meta’s news ban” or“the ban” because Meta’s decision to block the visibility ofnews content effectively banned Canadian users fromviewing or engaging with news on both platforms.
² This is an estimate based on the Supplementary
Information from Nyhan et al. (2023) and Guess et al.
(2023), two studies that were part of a researchcollaboration with Meta. They are the only publicly
available method of producing the average view-toengagement rate of Facebook and Instagram users in the
United States. For Facebook, this ratio is 18 views per
engagement (reaction, comment, share). For Instagram, it
is 57 views per engagement (like, comment, share).
³ Media Ecosystem Observatory. “When journalism isturned off: Preliminary findings on the effects ofMeta’s news ban in Canada.” April 2024.
⁴ Media Ecosystem Observatory. “State of the Canadian
Information Ecosystem.” November 2023.

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Information Ecosystem Brief • Old News, New Reality: A Year of Meta's News Ban in Canada

9Contributors
Sara Parker

Aengus Bridgman

Sara is an Analyst at the Media Ecosystem Observatory
and a recent graduate in Political Science from McGill
University. Her research focuses on how social media
platforms shape policy and the public sphere.

Aengus is the Director of the Media Ecosystem
Observatory and an Assistant Professor (Research) at the
Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. He is
one of Canada’s leading experts on misinformation, digital
activism, and the politics of digital media.

Christopher Ross
Christopher is a Survey Analyst at the Media Ecosystem
Observatory. He holds a Master’s degree in Political
Science from McGill University and is primarily interested inpolitical attitudes and climate policy in Canada.

Zeynep Pehlivan, PhD
Zeynep is an academic associate at the Media Ecosystem
Observatory, where she works on applying advanced
computational methods to social science. She holds a
Ph.D. degree in computer science from University Pierre
and Marie Curie. Prior to joining the MEO, she worked as a
research engineer at the Institut National de l’audiovisuelde France.

This brief was made possible by the considerable work ofa large number of researchers in Canada. In no particularorder, we would especially like to thank Shane Littrell,
Junyan Zhu, Thomas Bergeron, Thomas Galipeau, Blake
Lee-Whiting, Danielle Bohonos, Natasha Goel, Saewon
Park, Mika Desblancs-Patel, Ben Steel, Ashley Vu, Nader
Hedfi, Olivia Melanson, Alexei Abrahams, Jennie Phillips,
Taylor Owen, Peter Loewen, Isabelle Corriveau, and Lee
Slinger. We also thank Brian Morgan and Sarah Tran for
their design work.
The work of the Media Ecosystem Observatory and theCanadian Digital Media Research Network is funded inpart by Heritage Canada’s Digital Citizen Initiative.

Methodology
Social media data in this report covers May 26 to June 19
in 2023 and 2024. All media organizations were identified
manually by a team of research assistants, with each of
their social media handles across Facebook, Instagram,
YouTube, TikTok, X/Twitter collected as well. All data wascollected at least 72 hours after post-time to ensurecomparable engagement metrics. All data collected from
Meta platforms for this Brief was through the CrowdTangle
API. Meta is closing CrowdTangle access on August 14
which will make this research much more challenging.
Survey responses from 1,463 Canadian adults collectedfrom July 24 to July 30, 2024 using a commercial survey
provider. The margin of error for a comparable
probability-based random sample of the same size is+/-2.6%, 19 times out of 20. Specific questions used in thisanalysis are:
How often do you use each of the social media apps
and websites listed below (for any reason)? (Never,Once or twice a month, Several times a month, One or
twice a week, Several times a week, Once or twice aday, Several times a day)Media Ecosystem Observatory

When you use each of these social media apps, howoften do you read, watch, listen to, or share the news,
specifically? (Never, Once or twice a month, Several
times a month, One or twice a week, Several times aweek, Once or twice a day, Several times a day)Can people in Canada see content posted by news
organizations (not including those focused on sports
and entertainment) on the following platforms?
(Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, X (formerly
Twitter))In the past six months, have you seen content fromnews organizations or links to news content (notincluding sports and entertainment) on Facebook
and/or Instagram? (Yes, No)In your view, why don’t you see content from news
outlets on Facebook and/or Instagram? (I am notinterested in news content, I didn’t pay attention to any
news, I didn’t subscribe to or look for any news
accounts, News content has been restricted on thisplatform, Other (please specify)

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