Canada’s Heritage Minister redoubled her calls for Meta to end its ban on Canadian news content on Facebook and Instagram on Saturday as thousands of Canadians continued their rush to escape wildfires ravaging British Columbia and the Northwest Territories.
Are they not sending out emergency messages via the cell network? Is it not on local news and the radio? Doesn’t YouTube have the ability to inject regional advertising? Are they not even putting up road signs mentioning the evacuation?
I don’t get how it’s Facebook’s problem when not everyone has a Facebook account and there are many other (better) avenues.
Maybe I’m missing something about the infrastructure in more remote areas?
These are the real questions that need to be asked. Using a social media platform from a company based in another country as your country’s emergency news outlet is a big problem. Citizens using social media for news is another.