As the capital of the northwest territories in Canada, Yellowknife engage in mass evacuation of 20,000 individuals last week , residents depend on Facebook to assist to share relevant information regarding the wildfires that are rapidly approaching.
Justin Trudeau, prime minister informed that it was unthinkable that due to a new licensed law the platform had responded by blocking news links, in a time when the country is fighting its worst wildfire season ever recorded.
In the center of a natural disaster, Yellowknife had to steer around the decision made by Facebook to block news articles on its Canadian platform. Facebook’s parent company Meta, retaliated to a new Canadian law requiring tech companies to remunerate news outlets for utilizing their content.
Canadian officials approved the online news act in June, demanding social media platforms such as Meta and search engines such as Google to negotiate with publishes to license their content. The new law scheduled to go in effect in December, but the legislation was described by Meta as unworkable and compiled with a law to terminate news accessibility for Canadian people, resulting in contents posted in Instagram and Facebook by Canadian residents and international news outlets will not be visible to Canadians using the platforms.
Meta said in a statement, that since February they have been clear that the online news act would influence the distribution of news contents on their platform, we remain attentive on guaranteeing residence in Canada can make use of our technologies to access information and connect with love ones.
Meta further stated that in excess of 65,000 individuals have been safeguarded from the wildfires by utilizing Facebook’s Safety Check tool.
But timing could have not have been worst for many Canadians who are dependent on social media for information exchange, especially families in isolated parts of the country.
In reply, some users have resulted in workarounds, such as typing out the entire URL, threading extra information in comments and taking screenshots – or boycott Instagram and Facebook altogether.
