B.C. government latest to pull ads from Meta

The B.C. provincial government is the latest body to pull ads from Facebook and Instagram over parent company Meta’s plan to block news in Canada in response to the passage of the Online News Act.

“To send a strong message to Meta that journalism is a vital public service and access to news should never be blocked, our government has decided to stop all advertising on Facebook and Instagram — with a limited exception for critical health and safety information,” Premier David Eby said Wednesday.

The B.C. government follows the lead of several government bodies and news organizations who have announced they would no longer advertise on Meta platforms. The federal government announced last week it would no longer spend its advertising dollars on the platform.

Several news organizations and labour groups have followed suit. Quebecor, Torstar, Postmedia, La Presse, Cogeco, Unifor and others have also suspended advertising spending on the platform.