The NWT government and city of Yellowknife are describing in tweets, Instagram messages etc. how to search key evacuation information on CPAC and CBC. The broadcast carriers have a duty to carry emergency information, but Meta and X are blocking links.
While internet access is reportedly limited in Yellowknife, residents are finding this a barrier to getting current and accurate information. Even links to CBC radio are blocked.
But Facebook is doing business in Canada while refusing to be subject to Canadian law or courts while doing it.
It’s platforms are up in Canada, recruiting members, collecting and monetizing data on Canadians.
There have been court cases and orders in Canada where both Meta and Google have refused to comply with judicial decisions on the grounds that only California and US federal courts have jurisdiction over them.
The law in this case could require Meta, Google and X to carry emergency information and links to it without monetization, just as it does for private broadcasters and cable carriers.
Got any links for that? That’s pretty juicy.
Here is a Walrus feature on the story of a mother whose son went unexpectedly missing from the University of Toronto, and whose body was found washed up from Lake Ontario much later.
The family’s attempts to access her late son’s email and social media accounts from Google and Facebook went to court, and there was an order, but both refused to comply and insisted she take it through California courts (which she eventually did as part of a group case).
The mother’s efforts were also reported on by the Ottawa Citizen in several articles and a video, the CBC, and the Globe and Mail .
While this case raised significant questions of digital privacy and what should be the legal standard to access accounts posthumously in cases of missing and suspicious deaths, Facebook and Google fought the case on the grounds of jurisdiction and refused to comply with the Canadian court order.
Google
There’s not a good article for meta. In 2017 they were going to be fined about $9mil for misrepresentation of what data was collected and how it was used, but looks like it’s been repealed this year.
I don’t know nearly enough about those court cases, international law, or treaties between the USA and Canada to say anything specific. But my general point is that ultimately Canada has a military and Facebook doesn’t. Facebook can’t do anything on Canadian territory unless the Canadian government permits it, and that includes refusing to comply with judicial decisions.
Canada makes the rules. Facebook just chooses whether to accept them or to leave.
(Even if Facebook had no physical presence in Canada or in any country that had relevant treaties with Canada, Canada could still order its ISPs and payment processors to block Facebook. However, Facebook does have offices in Canada so this is a moot point.)
True. But Meta hasn’t left as yet.
And there are users here suggesting that the Canadian government shouldn’t be attempting to legislate or regulate Meta.
“Should” can mean several different things in this context.
Is Canada capable of enforcing its legislation/regulation? Yes.
Does Canada have the moral right to legislate/regulate? Almost always yes. (I would say no if Canada just seized all of Facebook’s property for no reason, but no one is proposing anything like that.)
Is it in practice a good idea for Canada to legislate/regulate? Maybe yes but maybe no, just like with any legislation/regulation.
Does it make sense for Canadians be surprised or offended if Facebook doesn’t break the law but also doesn’t cooperate with the intent of the legislation/regulation? Here’s where I’m saying “no”.
I don’t consider myself evil, but If I were running Facebook, I would ask the experts working for me whether it was more profitable to pay Canadian news agencies or to stop letting Canadian people post links to news (keeping in mind that if Facebook pays Canadian news agencies, other countries will start demanding the same thing for their news agencies). The I would do whatever those experts said was going to be more profitable. My job wouldn’t be to do what’s best for Canada; it would be to do what’s best for Facebook while complying with Canadian law. (In the same way that as a private citizen, I do what’s best for me while complying with the law, not necessarily what’s best for the government or for the nation.)
@StillPaisleyCat @ArbitraryValue
Looks like they’re following the law pretty well here.
In return for being asked to pay for making links, they no longer make links.
Sure, Meta and Google can be nasty on other grounds (and fighting C-11 isn’t nasty), but they’re being quite law-abiding here.
Flouting the law would be sharing links and refusing to pay.
This is coming across like sealioning at this point.
THE LAW HAS NOT YET COME INTO EFFECT.
The law can come into effect whenever they want it to and the sites need to have their filtering systems ready and tested before that happens for them to be effective:
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2023/08/the-bill-c-18-regulation-fake-out-setting-the-record-straight-on-when-bill-c-18-takes-effect-and-the-regulation-making-process/