He Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeauaccused tech giant Meta, parent company of social media, of Facebook or Instagramto “put your business benefits to the safety of the population” block access to logs amid a wave of forest fires.
Meta began blocking access to news on reprisals by a law that requires technological platforms to partner with the media share revenuea measure that Google has also threatened.
“Now is not the time for something like this.”Trudeau said this Monday, during an appearance before the media during which he stressed that, “in an emergency situation”, access to up-to-date local information ‘is more important than ever’reports the CBC network.
For the Prime Minister, it is a “inconceivable” decisioneven if a Meta spokesperson already defended last week that did not anticipate any change in its current policyclaiming that official sources of information, such as government pages, are not vetoed.
The North American country is experiencing one of its worst waves of fires, with more than 5,500 fires recorded since the beginning of the year. The authorities estimate more than 13 million hectares burned so far, a figure without historical precedent.
Last week, local authorities ordered evacuation of thousands of people in British Columbia and the Northwest Territories.
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