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During a televised press conference on Monday (8/21), Trudeau pointed out that Meta’s decision to block national news demonstrated the company’s priority over profit, which he viewed as ignoring safety and good. -to be people who need information, in the midst of the fires that are spreading in his country.

“Facebook puts corporate profits before people’s safety,” Trudeau joked during a televised press conference in the Atlantic province of Prince Edward Island.

Federal Liberal cabinet ministers also criticized the news ban, calling it a reckless and irresponsible act by Facebook’s parent company.

This criticism spread after residents displaced by the fires complained in the same way, saying the blocking of the Canadian site from its Facebook platform had hampered their ability to share important information about the ongoing emergency.

To quote WAtoday Tuesday (22/8), in a situation of bad weather, where wildfires get out of control, news and information would be increasingly important for Canadians.

For this reason, Trudeau stressed that Canadians need to get more from big companies like Meta, which derive significant revenue from this country.

“It’s time for us to expect more from companies like Facebook that make billions of dollars for Canadians,” Trudeau added.

The bushfire crisis in Canada is currently of great concern, with more than 35,000 people having been evacuated from their homes due to the blaze. Climate change is cited as one of the main factors aggravating this situation.

So far, Meta has not given its official response to the criticisms made by the Canadian government.

However, the blocking of the Ottawa news site reportedly took place after the country’s government enacted the Online News Act that required Facebook to pay media companies for each article posted on its platform, a rule that the Meta company rejected.

Similar measures have already been implemented in Australia, where Meta blocked access to news and government in response to the Australian government’s media trading code, which it said was detrimental to the platform.