A screenshot sent by a Canadian friend shows Facebook preventing users in Canada from viewing news posts shared by Watertown Post publisher Hans Wilder.
By Hans Wilder | The Watertown Post
There is something almost surreal about seeing the screenshot accompanying this column.
It was sent to me by friends in Canada who regularly keep me informed about what they can and cannot see online. Where a Watertown Post story should appear on Facebook, Canadian readers instead get a padlock and a message: “This content isn’t available in Canada. In response to Canadian government legislation, news content can’t be viewed on Facebook.”
And lately, that apparently includes a whole lot of yours truly.
The Watertown Post has developed a significant Canadian readership over the past several months, particularly as we have expanded our coverage of cross-border issues involving Northern New York, Kingston, Ottawa, Ontario, trade, defense, the Arctic and the future relationship between our two countries. So there is considerable irony in having Canadian readers increasingly interested in what an American newspaper across the border is saying, while one of the world’s biggest social-media platforms prevents them from seeing its news content.
To be precise about what is happening, the Canadian government did not personally order Facebook to censor Hans Wilder or specifically ban the Watertown Post. Canada’s Online News Act, originally Bill C-18, became law in June 2023. It established a framework intended to require major digital platforms to compensate eligible Canadian news organizations for making their news available.
Meta responded by ending news availability on Facebook and Instagram for people accessing its platforms in Canada. And this is important for Watertown Post readers: Meta explicitly says the restriction applies to international news organizations as well. A newspaper can be sitting right here in Northern New York and its content can still disappear when the person looking at Facebook is sitting across the border in Canada.
That is exactly what the screenshot shows.
CENSORSHIP BY CONSEQUENCE IS STILL A PROBLEM
Ottawa can argue that the Online News Act was designed to strengthen Canadian journalism, not suppress it. Indeed, the law itself says it should be interpreted consistently with freedom of expression and journalistic independence. Meta, meanwhile, argues that the legislation fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between publishers and social-media platforms.
Those are the two sides of the legal and policy argument.
But from where I sit in Northern New York, I am considerably more interested in the practical result.
A Canadian citizen opens Facebook.
An American journalist has published something.
The Canadian citizen tries to see it.
PADLOCK.
“This content isn’t available in Canada.”
Call the chain of events whatever you want. For the person staring at the screen, the end result is remarkably simple: the news is unavailable.
And independent publications can be caught in exactly the same net as enormous media corporations.
AND APPARENTLY I’M NOT EXACTLY CANADA’S FAVORITE TOURIST EITHER
Then there is yours truly.
For reasons unrelated to this Facebook restriction, I have my own issues concerning entry into Canada. Canadian border admissibility is determined under Canadian immigration law on a case-by-case basis, and Canadian authorities list numerous potential grounds for refusing a foreign national.
That part is between me and Canada.
But I will admit that it makes the whole situation slightly funnier.
Apparently my articles aren’t particularly welcome on Canadian Facebook, and neither am I.
That’s unfortunate because I actually like visiting Canada. I would happily cross the Thousand Islands Bridge, drive into Kingston, sit down at one of its excellent restaurants and spend some good old-fashioned American money.
I have to give Kingston credit where credit is due. They know how to eat over there.
Instead, I remain on the American side of the border writing about Canada while Canadian friends send me screenshots showing that other Canadians cannot see what I wrote.
You couldn’t make this stuff up.
TO OUR CANADIAN READERS: THANK YOU
The people I especially want to thank are our friends and readers north of the border who continue sending us information, screenshots, stories and perspectives about what is happening inside their country.
We are separated by an international border, but Northern New York and eastern Ontario aren’t different planets. Kingston is practically our neighbor. Ottawa isn’t some distant foreign capital from the perspective of Watertown. Decisions made there can have consequences for trade, tourism, transportation, defense and families throughout this border region.
That is precisely why Canadians should be able to read what Americans are saying, just as Americans should be able to read Canadian journalism.
Nobody has to agree with the Watertown Post.
Frankly, where would the fun be in that?
But disagreement requires people to be able to hear the argument in the first place.
So to our Canadian friends who continue finding ways to read us directly, sharing our work outside Facebook and keeping us informed about what you’re seeing on your side of the border: thank you.
The Watertown Post will keep publishing from Northern New York.
The border may stop people.
Facebook may stop links.
Ideas have always been considerably harder to contain.
About the Author
