News content is being blocked. Here's how to connect to Daily Hive

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It is an uncertain and unprecedented time for media in Canada.

Bill C-18, or the Online News Act, is expected to come into effect in the country by the end of the year, and publishers like Daily Hive have found themselves caught in the crossfire in an escalating battle between the federal government and some of the world’s most powerful tech giants.

On the one hand, the feds want Google and Meta to pay news organizations their “fair share” for linking to or repurposing their content online. But the threat of the bill has the companies punching back — hard.

Meta is already testing blocking news on its social media apps like Facebook and Instagram for up to 5% of its Canadian users. CBC is already experiencing outages, with some users seeing the content on its primary Instagram page replaced with a white screen and a message reading, “People in Canada can’t see this content. In response to Canadian government legislation, news content can’t be viewed in Canada.” Meta is vowing to permanently block content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, on its platforms if the legislation is officially passed into law.

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Google says it will block local news in Canada in response to the legislation once it comes into effect. That means Canadian news links will vanish entirely from its news, discover and search products, including its search engine, which is the largest in the world.

The blackout isn’t just concerning to the industry; it’s also extremely worrying to Canadians. In a new survey released by the Angus Reid Institute on Monday, more than three-in-five (63%) respondents were concerned about losing access to Canadian news on Facebook and Google. The institute says that more than two-in-five Canadians use each platform daily for news — a proportion higher than all other platforms and websites.

However, Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez has pledged that if news is blocked, the Liberal government will ensure that newsrooms have the resources they need to continue doing their jobs.

“We have to make sure that newsrooms are open, that [journalists] are able to do their job and [they] have the resources necessary,” Rodriguez told The Canadian Press.

How Daily Hive content is affected

Because Daily Hive is a Canadian digital publisher that reports on current events, we are unfortunately a target of the blocking of news. It means that our editorial, video, and social content across the country may be restricted from a portion of our Canadian audience at any time.

Obviously, this is a massive hurdle for a digital publication like Daily Hive, with so much of our content distribution reliant on our robust social media presence on Facebook and Instagram as well as search traffic on Google and Google News. Just like our readers, we LIVE online, and we use social media platforms to connect with our audience.

We are hopeful that there will be a swift resolution between the Canadian government and the tech giants that will result in an outcome that means our content will be available to ALL of our readers. But in this time of uncertainty, here are the best ways to connect with our content.