Tech
Blocked: No more news for Canadian's on Facebook & Instagram

Blocked: No more news for Canadian's on Facebook & Instagram

Blocked

Meta is planning to follow through on threats to block Canadians from sharing any news on Facebook and Instagram, after the country’s Senate passed a law requiring social media platforms pay news outlets to share their stories.

The new law, known as the Online News Act, intends to create a more level playing field between big tech and the publishing industry — forcing search engines and social media platforms to engage in some kind of negotiation for licensing news content.

Drop the news, it's cleaner

Although not quite the news portal it once was, Facebook is still the most common social media site to go to for information. 28% of people in a recent survey by the Reuters Institute said they had used the platform for news in the last week, more than YouTube (20%), Twitter (11%), and Meta's other property, Instagram (14%).

Canada, however, isn’t the first country to entertain this kind of legislation. In 2021, Meta blocked news from its platform in Australia after the country passed a similar law — eventually leading to deals between major publishers and the site.

Related reading: Keep an eye out on Sunday for our latest deep dive into digital media.

More Tech

See all Tech
Mark Zuckerberg in the metaverse

RIP the metaverse

Meta seems to be winding down its metaverse ambitions. We took a look back at what the company was going for.

tech

Salesforce falls as Anthropic debuts Cowork tool

Salesforce is on track for its worst trading day in nearly two years, with shares down more than 6% Tuesday afternoon. One potential contributor: Anthropic’s release of Cowork, an autonomous digital assistant for completing office tasks. Essentially, Cowork is an agent-based version of Anthropic’s Claude chatbot that can access and manipulate files, automate workflows, and execute tasks on a user’s behalf.

Salesforce watchers will recall that the SaaS giant has thrown its weight behind its own agent-based workplace AI, Agentforce, which CEO Marc Benioff recently described as one of the company’s two main “momentum drivers.” In December, Benioff said he would consider renaming the company "Agenforce."

tech

Google reaches record high and crosses $4 trillion market cap after major wins for Gemini

Google parent Alphabet closed yesterday at a record-high stock price of $331.86, giving the company a market capitalization just above $4 trillion, as investors reward a string of wins for its Gemini AI model, including high-profile partnerships with Apple and Walmart.

After months of speculation, Apple announced a multiyear partnership to use Gemini to power its AI assistant, Siri, a major endorsement of Google’s AI prowess. That same day, Walmart said it would partner with Google to let customers purchase products directly through the Gemini chatbot, a move that would put Gemini in front of millions of Walmart shoppers and test whether AI chatbots can drive real commerce at scale rather than isolated queries. (Amazon, OpenAI, and Microsoft are experimenting with similar AI shopping tools.)

The stock is up nearly 1% again in premarket trading today. While Microsoft and Apple have both crossed $4 trillion in the past, they’ve since dipped below it, leaving Google and Nvidia as the only companies currently valued above the threshold.

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC.