Riposte against META: Why does Quebec remain the black sheep?

The boycott movement launched in Quebec against Facebook and Instagram by Quebec, cities, state companies and the media is largely within our borders.

• Also Read: Blocking the news: Quebecor, Cogeco and La Presse have suspended their advertising placements in Meta

Other than the Toronto Star and National Post, which entered the dance on Thursday, the Canadian political, media and business class did not follow suit by ending ad buying on meta platforms.

For Éric Montigny, a political scientist at Laval University, there’s no doubt that “social cohesion” is important in Quebec and has something to do with it.

“Smaller countries tend to have more social cohesion when there is a problem of sticking together to ‘preserve their identity,'” he explained.

“The media is a mirror of society: when you attack the media in society, you attack society.”

Mr. Montigny suggests that English Canada does not have “the same relationship to information” because the American media practically dominates there.

Philip Gendreau, a high school media ethics teacher who just published “GAFAM: The Five-Headed Monster,” suggests that reliance on American news means “English Canadians may not be as sensitive to issues of ‘freedom and cultural preservation.'”

“They have CNN and Fox News and other American media that speak their language, but we’re used to consuming more local news,” he said.

“I have the impression that in Quebec we have a reflex of resistance. Society seems to bond quickly when it comes to cultural issues,” he says.

It refers to a digital news report produced by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism that showed last year that French speakers systematically trust the media more than their English-speaking fellow citizens in Canada.

News Media Canada’s CEO, Paul Deegan, “welcomed” Quebec’s leadership, and more specifically Quebecor’s boss, Pierre Carl Peladeau, the first head of a large company to announce the end of advertising on meta platforms.

“Our message to premiers, mayors of big cities, big business across Canada is to follow the lead of great leaders who have taken a strong position in government and business in Quebec,” Deegan said.

Who will stop placing ads on Facebook and Instagram?

Procedure

• Government of Canada
• Government of Quebec
• Countless Quebec cities (Montreal, Quebec and Trois-Rivières, among others)
• Union of Quebec Municipalities

Quebec Crown Corporations

• SAQ
• Hydro-Quebec
• Lotto-Quebec

Media

• Quebecor
• Kogeko
• Press
• Radio-Canada/CBC
• National Post
• Toronto Star

business

• Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal