By Canadian Press

Conservatives ran on similar media policy as Liberals, but now claim it’s censorship

Aug 2, 2023 | 12:34 PM

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Liberal legislation aimed at social media platforms is ushering in censorship, despite his party running on similar policy in the last federal election.

The Online News Act will require tech giants to enter into agreements that compensate Canadian news outlets for content shared or otherwise repurposed on their platforms.

READ MORE: Editors Note: Prepare to lose access to local news on Facebook and Google

Poilievre claims the new law will make news disappear from the internet, and ban people from seeing news.

The Opposition leader’s remarks come after Meta announced it will permanently remove all news in Canada from its social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram, in the coming weeks in response to the law.

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However, the Conservatives’ 2021 campaign platform proposed a similar policy, calling on tech giants to fairly compensate media for the content they create through an arbitration process.

Meta has collaborated with a digital literacy expert on a guide to teach Canadians about other ways they can get news on the internet, such as going directly to publishers’ websites, downloading mobile news apps and subscribing to news alerts.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 2, 2023.

The Canadian Press