New Delhi: Days after its Facebook and Instagram pages were blocked in Canada, The Australia Today said it has yet to receive any formal communication from Meta, parent company of the two platforms in a statement issued Tuesday. The Australia-based news media outlet made the claim after Canadian authorities pointed a finger at Meta.

Founded by a member of the Indian diaspora, The Australia Today also said its pages were blocked on the two Meta-owned platforms soon after it published an interview with Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. “We first learned that users in Canada were unable to access our Facebook and Instagram pages shortly after publishing our interview with Indian External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar,” it said on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter).

In its statement Tuesday, the news media outlet said it had not received any complaints from users about difficulty in accessing its social media pages before this incident. 

It added that Meta did not send any official communication in this regard in the nearly 18 months since passage of legislation which sought to regulate digital news intermediaries in Canada. “To date, The Australia Today has not received any official notification or email from Meta regarding specific restrictions applied to our Facebook or Instagram pages.”

Statement from The Australia Today:

We acknowledge the recent statement from the Canadian Foreign Ministry and would like to clarify that we first learned that users in Canada were unable to access our Facebook and Instagram pages shortly after publishing our interview with… pic.twitter.com/jXWyd4vVFa

— The Australia Today (@TheAusToday) November 11, 2024

Officially referred to as the Online News Act, the 2023 law aimed to seek fair compensation for news publishers from social media giants. Meta chose not to negotiate either with the Canadian government or news publishers, making news inaccessible for Canadians on both Meta-owned platforms.

While The Australia Today “acknowledged” Canadian Foreign Ministry’s statement which attributes the block on its Facebook and Instagram pages to Meta, it also claimed, “Only after the interview (with Jaishankar) was aired we were made aware about the Canadian government’s legislation that led to Meta’s policy restricting access to news content.”

The Canadian foreign ministry had told ThePrint Saturday that the block was at the discretion of Meta under the Online News Act. It maintained that The Australia Today’s website is still accessible in Canada and the outlet itself has not been blocked or banned by the Canadian government.

Global Affairs Canada’s statement came days after the Indian foreign ministry called out what he termed Canada’s ‘hypocrisy towards freedom of speech’. This was a reaction to the social media pages of The Australia Today being blocked on Meta-owned platforms soon after it carried the Indian and Australian foreign minister’s joint press conference.

Signed by its founder-editor Jitarth Jai Bharadwaj, the statement Tuesday by The Australia Today reiterated its commitment to “diverse Australian multicultural stories and global Indian diaspora perspectives,” adding that it looks forward to “continued engagement with our Canadian audience, albeit through other accessible channels beyond Meta’s platforms”.

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