Exclusive-Meta's Canada news ban fails to dent Facebook usage
By Katie Paul and Steve Scherer
NEW YORK (Reuters) — Meta's decision to block news links in Canada this month has had almost no impact on Canadians' usage of Facebook (NASDAQ:META), data from independent tracking firms indicated on Tuesday, as the company faces scorching criticism from the Canadian government over the move.
Daily active users of Facebook and time spent on the app in Canada have stayed roughly unchanged since parent company Meta started blocking news there at the start of August, according to data shared by Similarweb (NYSE:SMWB), a digital analytics company that tracks traffic on websites and apps, at Reuters' request.
Another analytics firm, Data.ai, likewise told Reuters that its data was not showing any meaningful change to usage of the platform in Canada in August.
The estimates, while early, appear to support Meta's contention that news holds little value for the company as it remains locked in a tense standoff in Canada over a new law requiring internet giants to pay publishers for the news articles shared on their platforms.
Meta declined to comment on the estimates.
The Online News Act, passed by the Canadian parliament in June, forces platforms like Meta and Google parent Alphabet to negotiate commercial deals with Canadian news publishers for use of their content.
Both Meta and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s Google have said the law is unworkable for their businesses. Meta, in particular, has said links to news articles make up less than 3% of the content on its Facebook feeds and have no economic value to the company.
The world's biggest social media company has been trying to reduce the prevalence of news and other civic content on its platforms in recent years as it faces regulatory pressure in
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