When I entered Camosun College bright eyed and bushy tailed I wasn’t sure what career I wanted to pursue. During my first semester in the Digital Production, Writing and Design program I was quickly drawn to journalism. I thoroughly enjoyed my journalism class and was volunteering for Nexus, so my route to becoming a journalist felt like a natural progression. Although a career in journalism seemed shaky at best—with mass layoffs and consistently dipping revenue—I still felt a glimmer of hope that I could make it work. After all, effective reporting is a necessity in keeping Canadians informed.
My optimism has been slowly crushed over time but the cherry on top was Bill C-18 (the Online News Act) that was made into law in June. Bill C-18 won’t just impact prospective journalism students—it’s detrimental to all Canadians as all news has now been completely wiped from Facebook and Instagram for anyone in Canada. By the time this issue comes out, Canadian news will not be available on Google searches either.
So, why is this happening? Essentially, the Canadian government created this bill in hopes that tech giants would negotiate individual deals with Canadian news organizations and compensate them whenever their content is used. This backfired as Meta and Google’s response was to simply block news content from being shared or searched instead of having to pay. Which makes sense: why would large tech companies throw money at Canadian news organizations when it doesn’t greatly benefit them to do so?
The federal government has now ceased its advertising on Instagram and Facebook but, financially, it doesn’t seem to have the companies shaking in their boots. While I don’t love these gluttonous tech giants, I think there must’ve been a better way to go about this. I’m shocked and disappointed that the government didn’t have the foresight to see how this would harm Canadian media before pushing this bill into law.
This has done more than just squander one student’s journalism dreams—it’s put up a roadblock between Canadians and vital news. Younger generations don’t flock to Twitter the way they do Instagram. Canadians will still be able to visit their trusted news sites but it would be smart to start subscribing to newsletters or downloading news apps (like ours) to stay informed.
On a personal note, I loved sharing stories from Nexus on Instagram and if I had to guess, our readership will most likely be impacted. This also sucks for students who use our Instagram or Facebook to stay informed on student-based issues, or artists whose shows, galleries, and concerts we report on. I imagine that Bill C-18 will reduce readership for all news organizations, jeopardizing the way we share news with each other along the way. We are living in a tumultuous world where communication is an extremely powerful tool; it’s disheartening to see the powers that be leaving us Canadians in the dark.
Jordyn Haukaas, student editor
jordyn@nexusnewspaper.com