Social media giant Meta — which owns Facebook and Instagram — is making good on threats to restrict access to news sites..If you were trying to access Western Standard on an iPhone this morning, you might have received a message that read: “In response to Canadian government legislation, news content can’t be viewed in Canada.”.The restrictions appear to be selective at this point, depending on platform, device and even operating system..Mobile phones appear to be most affected followed by PCs running either Mac or Windows operating systems. Even within the Western Standard offices, some staffers could access content while others could not..James Finkbeiner, Western Standard’s VP of Operations, estimates that close to half of all the site’s traffic originates from social media platforms, including Facebook and Google. . Instagram blockNews sites are being blocked on social media. .After Meta’s decision was announced it was presumed that only shareable links to content would be blocked — not the entire sites. “We understood Meta would only block news links,” said Finkbeiner. .Ironically, users from outside Canada can still access Western Standard stories and content, or those with a VPN provider..And it’s not just Western Standard that’s affected..Multiple news platforms, including CTV News and the CBC had similar messages appear on their various feeds..Even the the British Columbia Transportation Ministry found itself blocked from posting route and travel information resulting from wildfires in the province. That’s presumably because the provincial government last week pulled all its Meta advertising in protest..In a harshly worded statement, Premier David Eby called Meta's decision to block news access "unacceptable.'' Eby insisted that journalism is a vital public service and news should not be blocked.. C-18Meta began throttling news sites this week. ."Local media creates much of the content that tech giants have relied on to build their business models, and many British Columbians now rely on social media to get their news," Eby said. "Meta’s decision to cut off that access is totally unacceptable.".It comes as governments and the social media companies dig in their heels on Bill C-18, the Liberal government’s online news act that passed into law on June 23. And there’s no indication either side is prepared to back down..According to Western Standard publisher Derek Fildebrandt it all stems from the Liberals’ $600-million bailout of unprofitable and tired old media companies. .He said they only have themselves to blame. .“The Western Standard is blocked on Instagram — and soon Facebook and Google — because the creepy corporate looters at CBC, Postmedia, TorStar and others have colluded like white-collar criminals with the federal government to steal money that doesn’t belong to them,” he said. ."The tragedy is that they’re dragging down successful start-ups that have proven capable of adapting to the new news media landscape — such as Western Standard, which receives no government funding — with them.". Social media C-18Western Standard was blocked on Instagram Tuesday. .“We begged Ottawa to amend the bill to allow independent media like the Western Standard to be exempt from this shakedown, but they refused and have insisted by law that we be lumped in with the looters. Now we are facing a drop in our traffic as we are forced to live with the consequences of their actions." .“It wasn’t good enough that we refused to take the media bailout, but now they need to try and cut us off from our readers directly. We have now been forced to reckon with how long we can continue to allow our own tax dollars to be weaponized against us as subsidies to our crony capitalist competitors.”
