Liberals have no intention of scrapping the law that got news banned from Facebook and Instagram

It's not the answer NowMedia Group and many other small, independent news outlets wanted to hear.

The federal government has no intention of scrapping the law that got news banned from Facebook and Instagram.

"Negotiation is the solution at this stage," Liberal Pacific Caucus chair Taleeb Noormohamed told NowMedia Group on Tuesday while in Kelowna for a Pacific Caucus summer retreat at the Delta Grand hotel.

"That (negotiate) is what responsible people do. They talk about ways to find solutions."

While Ottawa may be interested in sitting down with Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram), Meta isn't.

Meta made it clear in 2023 when Bill C-18 (the Online News Act) was introduced -- it would not pay to carry news and news links on Facebook and Instagram and it immediately banned news and news links from its platforms.

NowMedia Group reached out to Meta Canada head of public policy Rachel Curran and manager of public policy Jil Briggs to see if the company is now interested in negotiating with the federal government.

We didn't hear back from them by the time this story was finished.

Bill C-18 was designed with good intentions -- to make those massive online platforms like Meta and Google pay Canadian news outlets for reposting their news and news links.

But, it backfired.

Rather than paying Canadian news outlets, Meta didn't part with a penny and immediately blocked news and news links.

On top of getting no money from Meta, Canadian news outlets saw their audience shrink (news and news links on Facebook and Instagram accounted for about half of the reads stories received), engagement drop and advertising revenues dry up for Canadian news outlest because fewer people were seeing the articles.

NowMedia Group believes that if Bill C-18 is repealed and news and news links appear on Facebook and Instagram again, it can regain audience and boost ad revenues.

"The responsible thing for them (Meta) to do would be to ensure that they're paying Canadian media for that (news) content," said Noormohamed, who is also the Liberal MP for Vancouver Granville.

"We're open to having that conversation with them. And the door is open if they want to talk."

The federal government did negotiate with Google and the search engine giant agreed to cough up $100 million annually for five years for using articles and links from Canadian news outlets.

"As a result of C-18, we were able to get Google to the table to put $100 million of money every year, indexed to inflation, back into the news ecosystem in this country," stated Noormohamed.

"That was the first relationship and the first deal. That's the best deal Google has done anywhere in the world. Canada's going to be able to benefit from that."

The $100 million is distributed by the Canadian Journalism Collective to eligible newsrooms across the country to help pay the wages of reporters.

NowMedia Group has received some Canadian Journalism Collective funding.

However, NowMedia Group has applied for but not received any relief from the Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization, another federal program that helps news outlets pay reporters via the Canadian journalism labour tax credit.

"Look, the Facebook issue is one that we've been grappling with for a long time," added Noormohamed.

"Facebook decided to pull out of this market before the bill (C-18) even passed. They've done that in other markets and Meta has an opportunity to come back and talk to us anytime. We're open to discussing with them. We'll negotiate with them. We want to make sure that Canadians have access to news."