{"id":503198,"date":"2026-02-27T14:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/503198\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T14:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:26:09","slug":"local-tv-stations-want-meta-to-pay-up-for-news-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/503198\/","title":{"rendered":"Local TV stations want Meta to pay up for news content"},"content":{"rendered":"

Independent broadcasters, including CHEK News, are officially asking the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to make Meta pay them under the Online News Act. <\/p>\n

The group says the tech giant is profiting from posting their news content while they are banned from Facebook and Instagram. Mary Griffin reports.<\/p>\n

Scrolling on Facebook, it\u2019s not hard to find videos and articles from CHEK News, but not on the CHEK News Facebook page.<\/p>\n

In 2023<\/a>, Meta blocked all media outlets from Facebook and Instagram after Ottawa introduced the Online News Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It required the tech giant to inject funds into Canada\u2019s news industry for carrying its content.<\/p>\n

CHCH<\/a> news director Greg O\u2019Brien, along with a group of independent television stations including CHEK Media, says Meta is still carrying news on Facebook and Instagram, and they want them to pay.<\/p>\n

Watch the full story below:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t reach people through Meta platforms anymore, and what does reach people on Meta platforms is a bunch of AI slop,\u201d O\u2019Brien said from Hamilton, Ontario. <\/p>\n

\u201cGarbage, AI created information, misinformation, lies because there is no real truthful journalism available on Instagram and Facebook.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ ALSO: Opinion: Canadians deserve trusted news \u2014 Not AI-generated noise<\/a><\/p>\n

By blocking news Meta has avoided compensating Canadian news organizations,<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say they are blocking news on their platforms, but they are not. So they should be coming to the table, and contributing to news in Canada, because they benefit from us,\u201d O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s Local Independent Television Stations, of which CHEK is a member, asked the CRTC to force Meta to come to the table under the Online News Act.<\/p>\n

Joe Perkins, news director of CHEK News, said the broadcasters sent the CRTC a file with dozens of clips and screenshots of their news posted on Facebook and Instagram since the Act came into force.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens is when you remove local trusted news from the equation, misinformation fills the vacuum instantly, and I would argue that\u2019s happening right now,\u201d Perkins said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s putting the public at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Leach teaches writing and media studies at the University of Victoria. He says the vacuum created by a lack of news stories is hurting Canadians.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that journalism involves going out and finding facts, going and talking to people. Going and talking to different people,\u201d Leach said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd social media, you end up in flame wars of different opinions. Or even worse, echo chambers in which misinformation and disinformation can spread with nobody able to inject verifiable news sources.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meta has been in talks with the federal government about returning news to its platforms.
But it doesn\u2019t want to be subjected to the Online News Act. <\/p>\n

Of note, in 2023 Google agreed to pay $100-million for five years<\/a> to Canadian news publishers to exempt it from the Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Independent broadcasters, including CHEK News, are officially asking the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to make Meta…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,35966,75,2096,200871,5472,200872,281,182214,348,1062],"class_list":["post-503198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chek-news","tag-entertainment","tag-facebook","tag-greg-obrien-chch-news-direcgtor","tag-instagram","tag-joe-perkins-chek-news-director","tag-meta","tag-online-news-act","tag-tv","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}