Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has criticized Facebook negatively, saying that this virtual platform has a system of priorities in which corporate profits are much more valuable compared to the safety of people.
Justin Trudeau says that the social network, which is part of the ownership structure of the technology giant Meta, continues to apply the practice of blocking news materials during the wildfires in the Northwest Territories of Canada and British Columbia. According to him, the implementation of such a corporate policy during an emergency of a significant scale is incomprehensible. The Prime Minister says that the virtual platform, focusing on interests related to obtaining financial benefits, does not provide local news agencies with its virtual space to post up-to-date data about what is happening.
Canadian officials have reported that about 600,000 people have been evacuated in the Northwest Territories and British Columbia since this weekend. Justin Trudeau symbolically characterized the consequences of forest fires as apocalyptic and praised the actions of Canadian residents who actively help evacuees.
In July, the parent company of Facebook Meta began blocking news links on its virtual platforms in Canada due to the fact that the country has approved innovations in legislation according to which technology companies are required to coordinate payments to creators of relevant content for the placement of materials.
A Meta representative in a comment to the media said that Canadians use the digital giant’s technologies in large numbers to support communication with their communities and access information published by government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and emergency services. According to him, the new legislation of Canada forces the company to block the distribution of news content on its virtual resources within this country. At the same time, he noted that Meta adheres to the concept of ensuring the availability of technologies.
The representative of the technology giant added that 300 thousand people visited the accounts of the response to crisis situations in Yellowknife and Kelowna, registered on Facebook.
As we have reported earlier, Canada to Require Google and Meta to Pay for News.
