The Professional Association of Journalists of Quebec (FPJQ) and PR experts invite the population on Friday, on the occasion of the International Day of Democracy, to spend 24 hours without consulting or publishing on meta-platforms.

The two organizations want to denounce the blocking of messages on the meta-platforms Instagram and Facebook in Canada.

Several organizations and political actors support the Day Without Meta initiative, including Quebecor, the Union des artistses, the mayor of Laval, Stéphane Boyer, the mayor of Longueuil, Catherine Fournier, the mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, as well as the Canadian Association of Journalists.

For several weeks it has no longer been possible to share or view journalistic content on meta-platforms nationwide. The American company imposed this ban in response to the passage of the Online News Act called C-18, which would require it to compensate media outlets for sharing their content.

“We want to show people that they can take back their freedom and show that it is not a foreign company that is telling Canadians, Quebecers, what laws should apply here» said the president of the FPJQ, Michaël Nguyen, during the announcement of this day last week.

He recalled that large companies such as Meta and Google generate 80% of digital advertising revenue in Canada and are contributing to the media crisis by reducing their revenue streams.

Mr. Nguyen, citing an analysis from the University of Quebec in Montreal, pointed out that sharing Canadian news on Facebook brought the social network $193 million in revenue in 2021, while the federal government determined that Meta earned $62 million annually US dollars should be paid to Canadian media.

The FPJQ and the Quebec Society of Public Relations Professionals (SQPRP) invite the population to consult media websites directly and subscribe to one of them or their newsletter.

The Canadian Press