The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has followed up with Meta on how the company is handling news content in Canada under the Online News Act, confirming it has reviewed Meta’s responses and is continuing to monitor the situation.
The update came in a letter dated December 3, 2025, from CRTC Vice-President of Broadcasting Scott Shortliffe to lawyer Teresa Maria Tomchak of Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, who represents Meta. Shortliffe said Commission staff have examined Meta’s submissions and are watching how the company applies its news policies. “Commission staff has noted the steps that Meta has taken to implement and enforce its policies regarding news content,” he wrote, adding, “We will continue to monitor the situation and will follow up as needed.” The letter was also sent to Meta’s Public Policy Director Dan Ball and senior CRTC officials.
The issue traces back to Meta’s decision to block news links on Facebook and Instagram in response to the Online News Act. University of Ottawa law professor Dr. Michael Geist noted that former Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge had urged the CRTC to probe Meta’s approach, pointing to screenshots and other workarounds users employed after news links were removed. St-Onge said at the time, “I can’t wait to see what the CRTC will do when the law is fully enforced on Dec. 19.”
According to Geist, the CRTC’s latest letter signals the regulator does not intend to take enforcement action. He argues this reflects how the legislation was drafted: companies could comply by stopping news links entirely, as Meta did; by negotiating payment agreements, like Google; or by pursuing arbitration, which no company chose. Geist says the law “was flawed from day one,” and that further regulation would likely face legal challenges without fixing the core problem.
The feds were able to extract $100 million annual payments from Google, to fund Canadian news publishers (which have proven themselves as being unable to figure out profitable business models). Meta chose to just ban the sharing of news links, which is within their right to follow the Online News Act. The move made former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau super angry.
“We’re continuing constructive conversations with Google. Unfortunately, Facebook has just refused to recognize any sort of responsibility it might have in contributing to a democracy,” said Trudeau in the summer of 2023.
The former Prime Minister touted at the time, “We’re not backing down on this, this goes to the core of a free and informed society that is able to take responsible decisions in a democracy.”
This February, however, after it had stopped spending money on ads on Facebook and Instagram to spite Meta, the federal government resumed ads, spending up to $100,000 to promote GST rebates on both social networks.
The latest CRTC decision here looks to be part of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s plan to likely rethink the controversial Online News Act, as he continues to slowly unravel Trudeau’s decisions over the past decade.
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