In light of legislation requiring internet giants to pay news publishers, Meta said it is to turn off access to news on Facebook and Instagram in Canada. The legislation, commonly known as the Online News Act, has been ratified by the country's Senate Thursday. This law is expected to compel internet companies to negotiate with news firms to pay compensation for posts and links featuring their reports.

"We are confirming that availability of news will be discontinued on Facebook and Instagram for users in Canada before the enactment of the Online News Act (Bill C-18)," Meta said in its blog post. "We have repeatedly shared that for compliance with Bill C-18, content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, will not be available to people when accessing our platforms in Canada."

Meta has clearly taken a position on the matter since the bill was introduced in 2021. Earlier this year, the company threatened to deny the country access to Canadian news unless the government updated the proposed legislation. The company blocked news on Facebook and Instagram to some users in Canada starting earlier this month. Now that the country's Senate has cleared the bill that is going to be a law after getting the royal assent from the governor general-a step which is more considered a formality, Meta readies itself to act on the threats it had issued.

Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez slammed Meta's decision via a tweet on Thursday.

"Facebook knows very well that they have no obligations under the act right now," the tweet reads. "Following Royal Assent of Bill #C18, the Government will engage in a regulatory and implementation process. If the Government can't stand up for Canadians against tech giants, who will?"

Meta was among other net giants who publicly condemned this legislation. More importantly, recently, Google said that earlier this year it initiated testings that banned users' access to certain news stories in Canada. "Doing everything we can to avoid an outcome no one wants," a spokesman said of the company through email.

"We've proposed thoughtful and pragmatic solutions at every step of the way that would have improved the Bill and cleared our path to increase our already significant investments in the Canadian news ecosystem," the company said in a statement. "So far, none of our concerns have been addressed. Bill C-18 has now become law and remains unworkable. We are continuing to urgently seek to work with the government on a path forward."

It is actually similar to a law passed in Australia in 2021. Meta pulled news content from the country once the law passed, but brought it back after the Australian government amended the legislation to give the platform more time to negotiate with publishers.