News Media Canada, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and CBC/Radio-Canada (“the applicants”) have applied to Canada’s Competition Bureau to investigate Meta’s abuse of its dominant position, as evidenced by its decision to block news content from its digital platforms in Canada. Meta’s practices are clearly designed to discipline Canadian news companies, prevent them from participating in and accessing the advertising market, and significantly reduce their visibility to Canadians on social media channels. Meta’s anticompetitive conduct, which has attracted the attention of regulators around the world, will strengthen its already dominant position in advertising and social media distribution and harm Canadian journalism. Through Facebook and Instagram, which together account for more than 70 per cent of the online social media market in Canada, Meta effectively has substantial control over access to Canadian news. The applicants ask the Competition Bureau to use its investigative and prosecutorial tools to protect competition and prohibit Meta from continuing to block Canadians’ access to news content.
