youth · media
In response to the new federal online news law, Meta announced Tuesday that its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, will now block all Canadian journalistic content for all users. This censorship will have serious impacts for Internet users, especially young people, who are used to getting information on social networks.
Last July, the Canadian parliament passed Bill C-18 on online news, which aims to force Internet giants to pay Canadian media for the use of their news content.
Meta on Tuesday undertook to completely block Canadian media content on its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, in order to “comply” with Canadian law. Remember that C-18 is to come into force next December.
According to information obtained by Pivot from Meta, the web giant was in July testing various means of restricting public access to certain media accounts and their content, including when shared by other users. trices.
“Meta has chosen to be just a platform for insignificant entertainment… and disinformation,” summarizes Jean-Hugues Roy, professor at the School of Media at the University of Quebec in Montreal.
“Information enriches the experience we can have on Facebook and Instagram,” he laments. “That’s part of the reason we’re going back. »
According to him, the big losers of this censorship are citizens, especially young people, who tend to get information mainly on social networks.
Most recent Digital News Report revealed that 39% of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 use social media as their main source of information. In Quebec, another survey from Laval University showed that this rate reached 69% for the same age group in 2021.
Disinformation risk
If journalistic content is no longer displayed there, what will young people see when they access Facebook or Instagram?
In 2021, Jean-Hugues Roy had tried to answer the question in a research titled Kittens and Jesus: what would remain on a Facebook without news? It didn’t bode well.
What remains of Facebook, after its journalistic cure, are essentially fan pages dedicated to influencers or celebrities, clickbaits or even pages of light memes. What stands out from the lot, according to the researcher, are the religious contents, especially evangelical ones, the recipes, the wishes of good day and the cute animals.
“Meta has chosen to be a platform for meaningless entertainment… and misinformation. »
Jean-Hugues Roy
Another salient fact: the experience had generally shown little disinformation content, compared to that which can be found among our neighbors to the south. “In the United States, disinformation is getting in the way, because there are elected officials who give credence to these completely eccentric theses,” he explains. “In Canada we were protected from that, because there were no politicians who did the same thing – until Pierre Poilievre appeared. »
Mr. Roy recalls that the leader of the Conservative Party has in the past shared conspiratorial content on his social networks. He fears that other elected officials will be tempted to follow suit. “I fear that misinformation about [les plateformes de] Meta is taking up more space and impacting political discourse in Canada – and not for the better. »
Digital Literacy
If misinformation spreads faster online, young people may be more affected. The Laval University study cited earlier finds that it was young Quebecers aged 18 and 34 who were most likely to hold conspiratorial beliefs during the pandemic.
Following its announcement on Tuesday, Meta shared a practical guide for its users to help them better identify trustworthy media content online, including visiting news media websites, downloading mobile apps, and subscribing to newsletters.
“I fear that misinformation about [les plateformes de] Meta is taking up more space and impacting political discourse in Canada – and not for the better. »
Jean-Hugues Roy
But this is in no way sufficient to ensure a change in habits already well established among young people, thinks Jean-Hugues Roy. “What it says is what the media is already saying,” to little effect.
“We will have to change the way we consult the media,” thinks researcher and doctoral student in communication at UQAM Laurence Grondin-Robillard. “We will have to get the youngest, and ourselves, used to going to consult the sites of the media that we want to consume. »
Reply needed
At the same time, Jean-Hugues Roy thinks the Canadian government should do more to hold tech giants to account.
Censorship or not, the main issue is the algorithms which remain the private property of the companies and de facto black boxes whose operation the public does not know.
In the eyes of the researcher, it is high time that Meta and the other platforms allow researchers to access their infrastructures. “I’ve been asking for this for years, researchers all over the world have been asking for this,” he says. “Governments remain deaf. It seems to me that Canada could become a pioneer by forcing it. »
2023-08-03 21:17:28
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