Nearly every day for the past five years, Vicki Hogarth has used Facebook to keep her community informed. As the news director for CHCO-TV—an independent, nonprofit television station in rural New Brunswick, Canada—she livestreamed town council meetings, posted monthly video interviews with local mayors and shared at least a dozen posts daily. For many in the community of St. Andrews and the larger Charlotte County, it was the way to stay on top of local news.
One day in early August, that all ground to a halt. Meta had finally made good on a promise to block news content in Canada, in response to a new law that requires the company to pay news businesses for content that ends up on Facebook or Instagram. The CHCO-TV Facebook page, followed by 28,000 people—nearly 2,000 more than the entire county—has been wiped clean. “No posts available,” the newsfeed reads.
“It’s just gone,” Hogarth said.
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