The Online News Act, also known as Bill C-18, received royal assent in 2023. It was intended to strengthen the financial sustainability of Canadian news media. However, it has caused far more harm than good to the press in this country, and it is time for Bill C-18 to be repealed.
The idea behind the legislation was that tech companies and social media websites took money away from Canadian news organizations by allowing users to share links to their websites. Therefore, to make these companies ‘pay their fair share,’ the federal government gave platform owners two options: negotiate with Canadian media outlets, individually or collectively, or negotiate with government on their behalf.
Tech companies responded harshly to this legislation. Google initially said it would not display content from Canadian news media before eventually backing down. However, Meta—which owns Instagram and Facebook—banned Canadian news media on its platforms, blocking the accounts of the CBC, NTV, VOCM, CTV, The Telegram, The Independent, CHMR, The Muse and preventing users from sharing links to their websites.
This ban has significantly hindered Canadians’ access to news.
Many Canadians, particularly Canadian youth, consume the news by clicking on an article link posted by a mutual on a social media platform or by watching a reel posted by the CBC while doomscrolling.
Not everyone has cable anymore to watch the nightly news, and how many people listen to the radio in the car instead of hooking up their playlist to Bluetooth? Removing the ability to consume news on social media prevents many Canadians from becoming informed on current affairs.
Now, you would be right to ask, “Since only two platforms banned Canadian news, can’t you just consume it on other platforms?”
However, according to Environics Research, as of 2025, 67 per cent of Canadians use Facebook and 41 per cent use Instagram, the two platforms that currently ban Canadian news. This number is much higher than platforms that do not ban it, with TikTok at 18 per cent and X, formerly known as Twitter, at 17 per cent.
The Meta ban only exists because of Bill C-18, and almost three years since its passage, Meta has shown no sign of wavering from its decision.
Informed citizens are extremely valuable to a country. Bill C-18 impedes the ability of Canadians who aren’t news junkies, visiting news websites daily, from becoming informed. This was evident the same year the bill was passed, when devastating wildfires affected much of the country; however, Canadians were not permitted to share news links with wildfire updates on Meta social media platforms, putting lives in danger.
As conspiracy theories and misinformation run rampant on the country’s most active social media platforms, the absence of trusted news organizations to provide users with factual information is extremely worrying.
To keep us safe and informed, it’s time to repeal the Online News Act and allow Canadian news on the country’s most popular social media platforms.
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