The Liberals are flip-flopping on their advertising ban on Meta, not on behalf of news organizations like True North, but for themselves.
In response to the Liberals’ online news bill, Bill C-18, Meta previously banned news links on Facebook and Instagram for Canadian users. In retaliation, the government announced it would not pay advertising dollars to Meta if the tech platform didn’t agree to be forced to pay Canadian news organizations.
“We have decided to take the necessary step of suspending all Government of Canada advertising to Facebook,” said then-Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez weeks after the news ban.
CTV News first revealed that the Liberals’ advertising boycott on Meta would come to an end with a $100,000 campaign promoting the GST rebate.
The Toronto Star later revealed that this price tag would rise to almost $300,000.
True North’s Candice Malcolm said that a key component of the online news act was an attempt to force Meta to bail out failing Canadian news companies.
“Now that Trudeau needs to use Zuckerberg’s platforms to promote his own vote-buying scheme for the Liberal Party, Justin Trudeau is walking that back,” she said.
However, Malcolm highlighted the hypocrisy in the recent decision.
“Trudeau is saying it’s okay for him and his government to be back on Facebook and Instagram, but it’s not okay for journalists and organizations like True North. Very fitting. Very rich,” she said.
Unlike Meta, Google succumbed to the Liberals’ demands and agreed to pay $100 million annually to publish Canadian news on its platform.
A previous study revealed that the news ban resulted in Canadian news engagement plummeting. Canadian news outlets lost 85 per cent of their engagement on Facebook and Instagram, leading to a 42.6-per-cent overall decrease in online news consumption — representing 11 million fewer views daily.
Concerning the GST rebate the Liberals are now advertising, a previous survey from the Angus Reid Insitute revealed Canadians were not buying what the Liberals were selling. In fact, the survey highlighted that the political gambit, which boasted of the tax holiday and $250 cheque, was working against the Liberals.
Over eight in ten (84 per cent) of Canadians said the tax exemption was entirely or mostly political. Less than five per cent of respondents who did not already intend to vote Liberal said the tax gambit would make them much more or more likely to vote for the party in the future.
However, 36 per cent of Canadians said that the tax trick would make them less or much less likely to vote for the Liberals in the future.
Facebook and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg previously revealed that he would “dramatically reduce the amount of censorship” on Meta’s platforms.
The change would be a move away from fact-checkers and towards X-style community notes, which Zuckerberg said would promote and defend free expression and eliminate bias. He also committed to working with the Trump administration to defend free speech internationally.
Malcolm highlighted more irony with Trudeau, given his recent call to Canadians to purchase Canadian goods and boycott American goods in response to the tariffs.
“And meanwhile, we learned that he is now using our tax dollars to pay for ads to one of the largest American corporations in the world, all just to promote his electioneering tax gimmicks,” said Malcolm.
