As Yellowknife, the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories began a mass evacuation of 20,000 residents last week, the city turned to Facebook to help share the latest information about the fast-approaching wildfires.
But instead of simply sharing a link to a story about the wildfires from CPAC, the Cable Public Affairs Channel, the city instructed residents to look up the information in a search engine.
“Google: CPAC Canada or www . cpac. ca (just delete the spaces),” the city posted.
In the midst of a natural disaster, Yellowknife had to navigate Facebook’s decision to block news articles on its platform in Canada. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, began rolling out the ban on August 1 in response to a new Canadian law requiring tech companies to pay news outlets for the use of their content.
Canadian lawmakers passed the Online News Act in June, which requires social media platforms like Meta and search engines like Google to negotiate with news publishers to license their content. The law is set to take effect in December. But Meta describes the law as “unfeasible” and said the only way for the company to comply with the law was to “cease the availability of news for the people of Canada.”
As a result, content posted on Facebook and Instagram by local Canadian and international news outlets will no longer be viewable by Canadians using the platforms.
“We have been clear since February that the broad scope of the Online News Act will affect the sharing of news content on our platforms,” Meta said in a statement on Tuesday. “We remain focused on making sure people in Canada can use our technologies to connect with loved ones and access information.”
Meta also noted that more than 65,000 people have marked themselves as safe from wildfires by using Facebook’s Safety Assessment tool.
But for many Canadians, especially in remote parts of the country who rely heavily on social media for information, the timing couldn’t be worse, given the country’s worst wildfire season on record.
“It’s hard to imagine a company like Facebook choosing to prioritize corporate profits over making sure local news organizations get up-to-date information to Canadians,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday. “Instead of making sure local journalists are paid equally for keeping Canadians informed on things like wildfires, Facebook is blocking news from its sites.”
In response, some users are finding workarounds, such as typing the full URL, as the city of Yellowknife did, taking screenshots and putting additional information in comments – or deleting Facebook and Instagram altogether. whole.
Ollie Williams, the news editor for Cabin Radio, an independent online news site and radio station in Yellowknife, said the platforms had become “useless” after the new ban and that the station had stopped using them. The ban is “stupid and dangerous,” he said, “because it impedes the flow of vital information in a crisis.”
“We’ve seen enough demonstrated,” he said.
Mr Williams said the Cabin Radio audience had done an “amazing job” of “undermining” Facebook by taking screenshots of news articles and posting them on their own page, or by going directly to the Cabin Radio website for news.
Instead of pivoting to a new social media strategy in the midst of covering the fires, Mr. Williams said Cabin Radio’s readers and listeners did the work for them “in a way I never expected, ” he says. “It took a lot of weight off our shoulders.”
In the last few weeks, the traffic on the Cabin Radio site, where a small group of journalists have been covering a wide range of developments related to fires and evacuation efforts, have broken records, Mr. Williams said.
But other groups have not been as lucky.
Melissa David, the founder of Parachutes for Pets, a Calgary-based group that offers pet support programs and emergency response services, said the organization relies on Facebook to share verified information. But because the group failed to include a news article with the post announcing that Parachute for Pets had been designated as an official emergency response center, volunteers were confused and some questioned the authenticity of the post. , he said.
The organization, which helps care for more than 400 animals affected by wildfires in British Columbia and the Northwest Territories, needs to bring in two additional volunteers to help with direct outreach, Ms. David.
“We have a rhythm, but it’s an obstacle,” he said.
Trevor Moss, the chief executive of the Central Okanagan Food Bank, said he is concerned about the long-term impact of the news ban. The food bank serves the Kelowna area in British Columbia, where fires continue to burn out of control.
“We’re going through six to eight weeks of recovery,” he said. “We are in a crisis, and people want to respond, and every news media outlet should be allowed to do that at this moment.”
