On Friday, some CHEK News followers may have noticed that Meta is blocking access within Canada to all CHEK News posts on its Instagram site. The ban was also affecting the CHEK community Instagram account, CHEK Media.
As of Friday morning, even urgent public information from CHEK News was restricted from view for some visitors within the country.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, previously announced plans to block news links on Facebook as well. Google also said it will remove links to Canadian news sites from Google News and Google Discovery.
The move by both tech firms is in response to a federal bill requiring the largest social media platforms to pay news organizations for news content on their platforms.
While Meta and Google did not announce timelines for when it would begin blocking Canadian news sites, some CHEK News viewers began seeing the bans on Instagram on Friday.
We want to make sure you stay up-to-date with the latest news for Vancouver Island and subscribing to the newsletter is just one of the options available.
There are some other steps you can take to make sure you can easily access updates from CHEK News:
- Add cheknews.ca to your homepage or download the CHEK News mobile app for iOS or Android.
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You can also let your friends and family know to subscribe to the CHEK Now newsletter so they can stay informed.
Additionally, CHEK’s Twitter account will remain active posting news as it happens.
Thank you, on behalf of the employee-owners at the proudly independent CHEK Media. Serving our Island community since 1956.
At a time when the fire hazard on Vancouver Island is extreme, Meta is blocking access within Canada to all CHEK News posts on its Instagram site. As of Friday morning, even urgent public information from CHEK News is restricted from view within Canada. #cdnmedia pic.twitter.com/KvEsd7V734
— CHEK News (@CHEK_News) July 14, 2023
CHEK News
