The federal government is suspending all of its advertising on both Facebook and Instagram in response to their parent company, Meta, saying it will block all Canadian news from the platforms later this year once Ottawa’s new Online News Act comes into effect.

Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez made the announcement while speaking to reporters in Ottawa on July 5, saying that the government hopes its action will bring Meta back to the negotiating table.

The Online News Act, formerly known as Bill C-18, will require digital news intermediaries like Google and Meta to pay Canadian media outlets for any of their content that gets linked or shared on their platforms.

The new legislation is set to take effect this December.

Both Google and Meta have announced their intentions to block Canadian news on their platforms once the act takes effect, but Rodriguez says the government will only be halting its advertising on Meta’s platforms because it believes it can come to a resolution with Google before December.

“Meta, on the other hand, had a very aggressive campaign,” Rodriguez said in French. “They refused to discuss and they did not want to compensate the media accordingly, and so we’ve decided to suspend advertising on Facebook and Instagram immediately.”

More to come…