Seems like it's happening. Meta (the parent company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) started blocking posts by licensed Canadian media, and we don't know how much longer we have.
Some of our colleagues have already received alarming messages from their readers, who instead of the news links they traditionally saw in their feed, are now seeing messages saying, "this content isn't available in Canada; in response to Canadian government legislation, news content can't be viewed on Facebook."
According to Meta, "in response to Canadian government legislation, Facebook restricts the sharing and viewing of the news content from Pages connected to a news outlet in Canada."
So, "if you are in Canada, this means: you can no longer share or view news links or content on Facebook, including news articles and audio-visual content posted by news outlets; you can no longer see links or content from any news outlet Pages, even if you search for them or previously followed them." (Spelling and punctuation preserved.)
We, at the Mercury, haven't heard any of this strongly-upsetting news from our readers, but I'm afraid it's a matter of time, and not that long of a time.
Some of our readers, who are subscribed to our newsletter, have recently received an email saying that soon newsletters and direct visits to our provincial news hub at SaskToday.ca will be the only way for us to stay in touch, and for you to read community news online. (And here in Estevan, Dave and I put in a lot of work, heart and soul into delivering the news to you).
It's important to note that the Mercury printed newspaper is not going anywhere. So, picking up your paper old-style will still be an option as well, but that convenient way to have all your community news, your kids' pictures, your sports results and the latest updates all in one place along with the news from your friends and community groups and businesses through social media feed, is not going to work soon.
The federal government's Online News Act, also known as Bill C-18, was approved in Ottawa in mid-June. And as a result, Canadian journalism and your access to news are under threat due to the reaction from tech giants. The Online News Act will essentially force companies like Google and Facebook to pay Canadian media companies copyright fees when their content appears on their platforms, regardless of who is sharing it.
Meta is already proceeding with their threat. It sounds like Google might be next.
Just so you understand what it means for most of us, local journalists, I'll share how the past 10-15 years have been in the industry. We dedicated endless hours and years of learning, experimenting and rebuilding our reporting habits and skills to fit the online reality. We became faster and put online first, despite all the challenges.
We learned SEO and other often hard-to-understand things about internet algorithms, so that you, our readers, could still rely on us for your community news needs. By 2023, our Mercury Facebook page has over 9.1K active followers, which, you must agree, is pretty good for a community the size of Estevan. It's been a long journey, which seemed like it was just the beginning, but...
At this point, it appears like those efforts are to be buried, thanks to the new legislation. Of course, it's the tech giants' reaction that makes it hard on us, but I feel it was pretty predictable.
In the end, this move will hurt everyone but those who want to make journalists' work harder. Social media will be even more of an ocean where every person, but not a professional media outlet, can spread any kind of information, and it will be left up to users to sort and filter it. The changes will also make it more difficult for professional newspeople to reach the audience and do their job – tell the public about everything that's happening around you so that you could base your opinion on facts rather than social-media nonsense.
It will be less convenient to get your local news, but we are not going anywhere.
What can we do to stay in touch?
As I said, the paper will be available as usual. But if you relied on social media as your platform to stay up-to-date on what's happening in Estevan and southeast Saskatchewan, you'll have to adjust this habit a bit. We do have daily newsletters, which come in various options, as you can subscribe to news from particular communities or a province-wide collection. You may also want to bookmark SaskToday.ca's main page or particular Estevan Mercury page, to make it easier to find your regular local news updates.
Our paper, website and newsletters are all free.
Please, share this column and the information in it with everyone you think values local news. Your family. Your friends. Your neighbours. Encourage them to sign up for our newsletter so that they will continue receiving their local news and stay informed.
Those who know Dave and I and who's seen us at your local events, know, we work hard, seven days a week, morning through night so that people in the community were always as informed as one editor and one reporter can get you.
So, let's do our best to keep our communication going. I can make a promise to you that we will continue doing our job as best as we can, so please, try finding us online and making it a habit to check what we do. After all, everything we do, we do for our readers.
