Sipu Jha
Canadian government officials are reportedly in talks with Meta about restoring news to Facebook. This comes as the Online News Act, which prompted the tech giant to end access to journalism on its platforms in Canada, has become part of trade negotiations with the United States, a report claims. In 2023, the social media giant blocked all news on Facebook and Instagram in response to the act, which would have required it to inject funds into Canada’s news industry for carrying its content. According to a report by Canadian publication The Globe and Mail, the Online News Act, which became law in 2023, has come under scrutiny by the Trump administration, which regards it, along with Ottawa’s Online Streaming Act, as a trade irritant. The report claims that both laws affect American digital giants.Meta has consistently said it will not pay for news posted on its platforms. The company would need an exemption from the Online News Act to avoid a legal obligation to contribute to Canada’s journalism industry. Meanwhile, Google, which did agree to pay Canadian news publishers under the act, injects $100 million annually into the industry. Almost two-thirds of that goes to written media, including local newspapers serving francophone and Indigenous communities. Canada capped the CBC’s share of the funds, which are indexed to inflation, at $7 million, with other broadcasters getting no more than $30 million.In a statement to The Globe and Mail, Alisson Levesque, a spokesperson for Canadian Identity Minister Marc Miller, confirmed that preliminary talks between Meta and the Heritage Department are underway.“We want news back. How do we go there? That’s the question mark, and that’s why we are having these conversations. We are looking at how to get there,” Levesque said.
What Meta said about bringing back Facebook News in Canada
In October 2025, Rachel Curran, head of public policy at Meta Canada, told the Commons heritage committee that the tech giant would like to bring news back onto Facebook. She said she was “hopeful that the government will take another look at that legislation, which we think misrepresents the value exchange between publishers and our platforms.”“News publishers place their content on our platforms because they get increased distribution and then can monetise the clicks that they receive as a result of that distribution. So we think we are in a very different situation from Google. But that said, we would love to put news back on our platforms, and we are hopeful that can happen,” Curran told the committee.In a recent interview with The Logic, Canadian Minister Miller said Ottawa is willing to be “flexible” on the Online News Act and the Online Streaming Act amid trade negotiations. But he said the US will not be able to dictate the terms, and there are some lines the government will not cross. Last year, the Canadian government gave in to pressure from the White House and cancelled a proposed digital services tax.“The United States Government has made its views known regarding the Online News Act and Online Streaming Act, including in testimony before Congress. To protect the integrity of past and future engagements with the US, we will refrain from commenting directly on the negotiations which are being led by [Canada-US Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc],” Levesque added in her statement.Last month, members of Canada’s broadcasting and cultural sector warned that an increasing number of Canadian TV and radio stations could close if the federal Online Streaming Act becomes a casualty of the trade war with the US. The act, which became law in 2023, requires foreign platforms such as Netflix to support Canada’s TV, film and music sectors financially.Kevin Desjardins, president of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, said last month that if the act is shelved as a result of American pressure, it would prove a “crushing blow” to Canada’s cultural sector. In December 2025, 27 bipartisan members of Washington’s House Ways and Means Committee, led by Republican Lloyd Smucker and Democrat Linda Sanchez, wrote to LeBlanc and Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the US, calling on Ottawa to rescind the act.
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