This is Not a Test

A long time ago, in a media landscape far away there existed an American Emergency Broadcast System. North American readers who are of a certain age will know exactly what I’m talking about. If you got up early enough, or stayed up late enough, you’d witness the beginning, or end, of a television station’s broadcast day. In between the beginning and the end of their regularly scheduled programming you’d see a tv screen covered with vertical bars, each of them having their own bright colour. Sometimes there’d be hours of static: a screen filled with black and white fuzz. Usually (though I can’t recall whether this was at the beginning or end of the day, maybe it was both?) a test of America’s Emergency Broadcast System would occur during this time. The following text would appear on your tv screen, “This is a test. For the next sixty [or thirty] seconds this station will conduct a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test.“

This system was constructed to allow direct presidential communication with the American public in the event of a nation-wide emergency. Any Canadians who happened to be watching American tv stations also got to witness the testing of this system. As one of those Canadians, even though I wasn’t their target audience, I found the message reassuring. I was just a kid when watching these tests. I took comfort in the idea that someone was ready to broadcast a real, live message to warn anyone watching about an emergency situation that could be unfolding in their area. It turns out that the Emergency Broadcast System was never used for a nation-wide emergency. It was used thousands of times between 1976 and 1996 to inform residents of events such as severe weather hazards.

During this era I also recall getting up early in the morning, turning on the radio and staying glued to it whenever there was a winter storm. The radio would be tuned-in to a local station. I’d listen intently, eagerly awaiting the name of my school board. If my school board’s name was announced, there was a chance that rural bus routes would be cancelled for the day and I wouldn’t have to go to school.

These days we still have radio and television but it’s difficult to imagine one or two systems with the same reach that broadcast media had 30 years ago. Many of us own neither a tv nor a radio, and the analogue signal once captured by these devices is almost obsolete. Instead, everything we could ever want to know is routed through a small device that we carry around with us at all times. The device is generally thought of as a phone, though we rarely use it to call anyone. In spite of that, we use this device to stay connected with just about everyone we’ve ever known and millions of people we’ll never know. Furthermore, the digital media we consume through our phones dominates our lives in ways that no one could imagine 30 years ago.

You’d think that such a device would be perfect for commanding the attention of an entire population, and you’d be right. Unfortunately, it’s too good at commanding our attention. Most of us have too many different apps installed, and each one of those apps is specifically designed to command our attention. Many people thrive on this kind of excitement, but I don’t think anyone should blame you if you find it exhausting. Maybe you signed up to an app like Facebook a decade ago, and it still helps to keep you connected with your friends and family. Maybe, until recently, it was the best tool you had to access and share news most relevant to your community. During a time when (more than ever before) people around the world are affected by extreme weather conditions, I don’t think it’s fair to blame anyone for being upset when they’re no longer able to share critical news information with those closest to them.

With an increase in global average surface temperatures comes an increase in extreme weather events around the world. At the same time, big tech. companies have chosen to block their users’ access to digital news media. In February of 2021, the Australian government drafted a law known as the “News Media Bargaining Code”. In response, Meta (parent company of Facebook) began blocking user access to the websites of government and news organizations alike. This meant that during a pandemic, at the tail-end of wildfire season, Facebook users were unable to share critical information regarding public health measures and emergency services. The ban lasted for less than a week. World-wide backlash kept Meta in discussion with the Australian government, the legislation was changed, and Meta subsequently removed their ban.

Australians have since been free to access and share news via Facebook, however there’s no guarantee that anyone outside Australia will have the same access to their news. For example, should you reside in Canada you’ll find that your access to all news media through Facebook has been blocked. This is due to the drafting of Canada’s own legislation, the Online News Act. Once again, Meta’s news ban has been implemented before legislation actually comes into effect. The Online News Act won’t come into effect until December, 2023, and Meta’s ban on news organizations started during Canada’s own wildfire season this year.

While the entire city of Yellowknife (capital of the Northwest Territories) was under an evacuation order, none of the 20,000 residents there were able to post critical updates from local news organizations to their Facebook profiles. Fortunately, local journalists were able to pivot, offering live updates in alternative formats. Some journalists, like Morgan Tsetta, were already positioned to give on-going updates regarding progress of both the wildfires and Yellowknife’s evacuation. Because she used her personal TikTok account to create video updates, Facebook users could still share Setta’s content. Some independent news outlets, like Cabin Radio, began providing minute-by-minute live updates via text. This kind of innovation is incredibly valuable, but it can’t help you if you have no knowledge of it.

Make local news sources part of your emergency kit

Who provides you with reliable news stories in a format you can easily digest?

While I was writing this article, Hurricane Lee was progressing towards the province of Nova Scotia along the east coast of Canada. How did I know this? I’m pretty dependent on CBC radio and their hourly news updates. They keep me informed with reporting from across Canada and around the world. I know I can usually refer to their website for more detail regarding most of their news stories. For example there’s an article describing Hurricane Lee’s expected path, posted to help residents prepare for the storm. Of course, I’m not able to share links to CBC articles via Facebook post. At least Canadians can still use Facebook to share government online resources… for now. Such press releases (like this one offered from the government of Nova Scotia) won’t contain the cross-section of perspectives that we’ve come to expect from good journalism, but at least we can still post links to them.

facebook work-arounds

Are there any work-arounds that we can use to thwart Facebook’s ban on news media? The short answer is: yes. The longer answer is something like: most work-arounds require the same kind of comfort with technology that may be preventing Facebook users from migrating over to newer social media platforms. The other problem is that should a work-around become widely adopted, Facebook will likely find a way to prevent its success. During the early days of Facebook’s ban in Canada, independent news organization “The Breach” was clever enough to use a Virtual Private Network, disguising their website’s Canadian location. This might have been sufficient to allow sharing for a while, but Facebook’s ban now includes all news organizations from around the world.

A tiny loophole that I’ve found is posting news articles in Facebook Messenger to one user at a time. Unfortunately, as soon as you try to add multiple users to the chat, Facebook no longer allows the news link. Individual Facebook users still have the option of posting news screenshots to their profiles, and simply labelling them with the name of the host news organization. Another tiny loophole that I’ve found is Instagram’s link in bio. You can add multiple links (to any news outlet you want) inside your personal IG profile. As mentioned previously, posts to individual TikTok users and their content still work. There also appears to be a little wiggle room in terms of podcasts: some media organizations (like Canadaland) are barred completely, while other news podcasters are still allowed. Don’t underestimate the power of a news podcast for valuable discussion and analysis of current events. Most of the background research I did for this article was completed courtesy of Canadian news podcasts. I’ll give you a list of those I found particularly useful at the bottom of this article ;)

The only other wiggle room that I could figure out for Canadian news organizations in general, is through individual contributors. It’s easy enough for Facebook to identify an entire news organization. It’s more difficult for Facebook to identify every single journalist associated with a given organization. What’s even more difficult is identifying every single journalist in the world. Theoretically, individual journalists could use a personal Facebook profile to share links to their own online resources. It doesn’t even matter what those resources are or where they’re located. If they’re not associated with a known news organization, it will be very difficult for Facebook to identify the post as news. Journalists can update their own online resources with whatever content they want, including links to pieces from news organizations around the world. A journalist only needs a single web page where links to news organizations can be displayed. For example, Yellowknife journalist Morgan Tsetta’s got a Linktree page where she posts important news stories. Bitly’s another option where you can post links to web media. There are a lot of options out there. In their Facebook profile, a journalist can create a post that points to this intermediary page that lists their latest work in any given news organization.

At best, this is still a temporary solution but it might help us to be better prepared for the next extreme weather event. A better solution would be for billion-dollar companies like Meta to pay Canadian publishers for use of content. That may never happen, so get talking to all your favourite people. Use that device you carry around with you everywhere to connect with the folks in your community. Ask them who they rely on for local news. Google now while you still can!

CUZ GOOGLE’S NEXT!

That’s right, once the Online News Act comes into effect on December 19, 2023, Google may stop indexing Canadian news. If you think it’s difficult to find news because of Facebook’s ban, wait until you can’t Google the Canadian news you’re looking for… We’ll handle that one when we get there.

Until then, here’s some excellent Canadian podcasts (in chronological order):

-Mar. 27, 2023 episode of Canadaland, “The Plan to Block All Canadian News“

-Aug. 2, 2023 episode of The Big Story, “From extreme to extreme: The future of climate in Nova Scotia“

-Aug. 8, 2023 episode of The Backbench, “The Controversial Carbon Tax“

-Aug. 24, 2023 episode of FrontBurner, “How Meta’s news ban is affecting Canadians“

-Aug. 24, 2023 episode of Short Cuts, “Yellowknife’s Cabin Radio Fever”

-Aug. 30, 2023 episode of There Are No Girls on the Internet, “Canada is burning and Facebook’s ban on news adds fuel to the fire“

-Sandy & Nora’s Independent Media List