(Quebec) Not financing web giants like Facebook is a symbolic gesture with no impact, according to Quebec Solidaire (QS).
The party had to defend itself on Tuesday over spending on advertising on meta platforms after indicating in July that it would not promote Facebook until further notice.
The boycott was launched after Meta’s decision to block the sharing of stories from Canadian media on its platforms.
However, according to parliamentary leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, in the context of complementary elections in Jean-Talon, these platforms are essential to contact voters and symbolic gestures will not provide a solution.
“We will continue to place ads (on Facebook), he said at a press conference on the day of the start of the parliamentary term in Quebec. I think all this proves that symbolic gestures cannot solve our problem. »
He was thus able to answer “no” to the question of whether excommunications were useless, but at the same time that they had their “limitations” and did not provide a solution in this case.
A QS spokesperson also refused to take lessons from Communications Minister Mathieu Lacombe, who strongly condemned QS’s retreat on Monday, as did the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM).
“There are greater interests than the interest of your party,” CCMM president Michel LeBlanc said in an interview with Québécour.
“I’m telling you that finger-pointing and symbolic expressions have a big, big limitation and that’s not going to solve our problem,” Mr. Naudeau-Dubois emphasized.
The Parti Québécois (PQ), which has maintained its boycott of Meta, doubts the moral sense of the QS and denounces its lack of solidarity.
“Our media is dying for lack of income, the cornerstone of democracy, you have political parties willing to abandon their principles, just to get a measly 1% or 2% gain in a by-election. Abandon our Quebec media for the benefit of multinationals,” PQ leader Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon denounced at the press scrum.
“I am talking specifically about Quebec Solidaire in solidarity with the GAFAM multinationals. This in my view is indefensible. We must unite and ensure that our Quebec media remains viable in the face of unscrupulous giants. »
The PQ is also going to introduce a resolution in the National Assembly this afternoon to propose to elected officials “in solidarity with our national and regional media who have seen their advertising revenues diverted for the benefit of meta platforms.”
A boycott day organized by Quebec’s Professional Federation of Journalists (FPJQ) and the Société Québécois des Public Relations Professionals – a motion asking parties not to buy ads or sponsor publications on Meta this Friday. .
The Liberal Party of Quebec also confirmed that it will not end its advertising campaigns on Facebook until after the complementary vote on October 2.
Interim leader Marc Tanguay argued that 88% of Quebecers are on Facebook and connecting with these voters is important.
About The Author
