Jen Gerson, national commentator and co-founder of The Line, will be speaking at Vancouver Island University on Wednesday, January 10 on “Free speech in the digital age.”
Last month, regulations for the Canadian government’s Online News Act, which seeks to regulate tech giants Meta and Google in Canada, were published outlining how the new law would be implemented.
While Google reached an agreement with the government and will be paying $100 million to news organizations in Canada in exchange for sharing links to news content, Meta has been blocking news on Facebook and Instagram since the law was passed in the summer.
Gerson says that Meta’s decision to block news in response to the law means that Canadains who rely on social media for their information are getting it from less reputable sources.