News will be unavailable to Canadian Facebook and Instagram users within a matter of weeks after Meta has begun the process of blocking the content in response to the Online News Act.

Links to both Canadian and international news pages, as well as audio and video content from news outlets, will no longer be accessible to Canadian users. Users will also no longer be able to share links or news content themselves.

The process began on Tuesday and will be fully implemented “over the course of the next few weeks,” an update from the company said.

In a statement, Rachel Curran, head of public policy at Meta Canada, reiterated the company’s stance that the Online News Act is “based on the incorrect premise that Meta benefits unfairly from news content shared on our platforms” and that “the people using our platforms don’t come to us for news.”

“In the future, we hope the Canadian government will recognize the value we already provide the news industry and consider a policy response that upholds the principles of a free and open internet, champions diversity and innovation, and reflects the interests of the entire Canadian media landscape,” Curran said.

The Online News Act is a legislative effort to force large tech companies – namely, Google and Meta – to share more of the revenue generated from online advertising, a market where the two companies currently control roughly 80% of revenues.

However – as policy experts previously told MiC – the government lacks the ability to regulate the companies’ larger networks, which include ads on an outlet’s own website. The Online News Act is meant to be a more enforceable option that instead compels tech companies to bargain with outlets over “fair value” for having news content on their platforms.

This has also meant that companies would no longer be covered by the Act should they remove news content from their platforms, which both Meta and Google have maintained that they will do, both as the Act was moving through parliament and since it has passed.

“This is irresponsible,” said Minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge, in a statement to MiC, of Meta’s decision. “Facebook knows they have no obligations under the Act right now. They have not participated in the regulatory process. They would rather block their users from accessing good quality and local news instead of paying their fair share to news organizations.”

In its own statement, CBC also described Meta’s move as irresponsible and “an abuse of [its] market power,” adding that it would have particularly detrimental effects on communities in the north, for Francophones and for those in rural areas who depend more on Facebook for news and will now be getting information from unverified sources.

While the process of ending news availability for Canadian users only began this week, several news outlets were already reporting being unable to post to their Instagram accounts in the weeks since the Online News Act passed. Some individual users have also been blocked from accessing news links since early June when Meta began testing methods for blocking news in Canada.

In July, the Government of Canada pulled its ad spending from Meta platforms in response to Meta’s intention to remove news from its platforms. It was soon joined by the Government of Quebec and Government of British Columbia, as well as several municipal governments. On the same day as the government’s announcement, Quebecor announced it would be pulling its own ad spending from Meta, and was followed by other media companies, including Bell Media, Torstar, Postmedia and Corus.

At the time, Pablo Rodriguez – St-Onge’s predecessor as Heritage Minister – said that while he was confident that the legislative process would address Google’s concerns, Meta “had a very aggressive campaign” and was unwilling to discuss a solution.

Neither Meta or the Heritage Minister’s office commented directly on whether there had been further meetings or discussions held to address the company’s concerns. In an email to MiC, a spokesperson for Meta said that the process of implementing the Act “is unfortunately not equipped to make changes to the fundamental features of the legislation that have always been unworkable. The only way we can reasonably comply with this legislation is to end news availability for people in Canada.”

Meta also did not comment directly on whether it would be open to discussions with the government in the future, saying only that “we have and will continue to keep the government informed as we end news availability.”

“The world is watching Canada,” St-Onge said. “Other countries are looking at introducing similar legislation to tackle the same challenges. Canada is standing up to Facebook for the right reasons. Facebook is trying to send a message, not only to Canada, but to other countries like New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We’re going to keep standing our ground. After all, if the Government can’t stand up for Canadians against tech giants, who will?”