Two and a half years ago, CHEK News had the largest Facebook following of any media organization on Vancouver Island.<\/p>\n
More than 160,000 people chose to follow our Facebook page. Every month, our stories generated millions of engagements \u2014 comments, shares, reactions. On Instagram, more than 60,000 followers relied on CHEK News to stay informed about what was happening in their communities.<\/p>\n
Then, overnight, it all went to zero.<\/p>\n
When Meta instituted its Canadian news ban in August 2023<\/a> in response to the Online News Act<\/a>, CHEK\u2019s Facebook and Instagram accounts effectively went dark. Years of building trust, building audience, and building community were wiped out with the flip of a switch.<\/p>\n This wasn\u2019t because Islanders stopped caring about local news. It wasn\u2019t because our journalism suddenly lost value.<\/p>\n It was because Meta made a business decision.<\/p>\n The wrong content is filling the void<\/p>\n At the time, Meta said it was removing all news from its platforms in Canada. But here\u2019s what Canadians are seeing today: news-like content still circulates widely on Facebook and Instagram \u2014 just not from trusted, accountable Canadian newsrooms.<\/p>\n Instead, we\u2019re seeing:<\/p>\n Pages reposting stories without context or accountability<\/p>\n AI-generated \u201cnews\u201d content designed to look legitimate<\/p>\n Manipulated images and deepfake videos<\/p>\n Sensational headlines optimized for clicks rather than truth<\/p>\n This is happening at the very moment Canadians are more worried than ever about misinformation and disinformation.<\/p>\n It makes no sense.<\/p>\n Trusted, fact-checked journalism produced by local newsrooms like CHEK is blocked \u2014 while misleading or AI-generated content designed to mimic real reporting is allowed to spread.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re concerned about your parents sharing false stories, or your kids being exposed to manipulated content, you should be. The guardrails have been removed.<\/p>\n This is not about politics. It\u2019s about fairness.<\/p>\n The Online News Act was created to ensure that massive global platforms compensate Canadian news organizations for the value our journalism brings to their platforms.<\/p>\n Google chose to negotiate<\/a>. It complied with the law and agreed to contribute $100 million annually to support Canadian journalism.<\/p>\n Meta chose to block trusted news instead.<\/p>\n That decision had real consequences. For CHEK, it meant losing direct access to more than 220,000 followers across Facebook and Instagram \u2014 people who had actively chosen to receive our reporting in their feeds.<\/p>\n Those platforms helped us reach younger audiences, whose only news source may be social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n They helped us share breaking news quickly during emergencies. They helped us connect Islanders to their community.<\/p>\n All of that disappeared overnight.<\/p>\n A troubling new condition<\/p>\n Recently, Meta has indicated it would be prepared to pay Canadian news organizations for the use of our journalism to train its large language models \u2014 but only if those organizations publicly call for an end to the Online News Act.<\/p>\n In other words,\u00a0Meta is willing to pay for Canadian journalism to improve its AI systems \u2014 but only if news organizations oppose Canadian law.<\/p>\n That puts independent newsrooms in an impossible position. It risks politicizing journalism and undermining the very independence that Canadians rely on.<\/p>\n Compensation for AI training is a separate issue. It should not come with political strings attached.<\/p>\n Why we\u2019ve gone to the CRTC<\/p>\n CHEK, along with other independent broadcasters across the country, has filed an application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) asking the regulator to require Meta to negotiate under the Online News Act.<\/p>\n