Canada wildfire evacuees can't get news media on Facebook and Instagram. Some find workarounds

abcnews.go.com:

Canadian news outlets have been blocked on Facebook and Instagram because of a dispute with the Canadian government

Before fleeing about 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) south of Yellowknife by car, Agnes Grandejambe looked to social media to find out almost everything she needed to know about escaping the encroaching wildfires.

Some from official government accounts. Mostly from friends and family, including an offer of help from her First Nation band.

But not from news media sites.

That's because Canadian news outlets — including the only one she trusts — have been blocked on Facebook and Instagram as a result of a dispute with the national government.

“People were posting how close the fires were. And we knew the highway kept opening and closing, so we said, ‘OK, we’ll just go,’” said the 65-year-old who is a longtime resident of the capital city of Canada's Northwest Territories.

Her preferred media site, Yellowknife-based Cabin Radio, has been doing its best to get around the ban with help from the station’s audience members who have been taking news from the Cabin Radio website — filled with the latest details — then snapping a screenshot and sharing that image on Facebook and Instagram so that their friends, family and others are more likely to see the information.

“Our audience did an incredible job of undermining that ban on our behalf,” said Ollie Williams, editor of Cabin Radio, speaking by phone after relocating west of Yellowknife to Fort Simpson. “They found workarounds and they got our coverage out to each other, regardless of Meta trying to keep that from happening.”

For their part, reporters have been gathering news and talking to first responders from their cars while themselves having to evacuate.