Large format WANTED posters with an image of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg have been plastered around Canada as part of an outdoor advertising campaign by watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting. The group has praised Australia’s recent decision to require that Facebook pay news organizations for content.
“Without permission or compensation, Facebook profits by publishing content that does not belong to it,” says Friends’ executive director Daniel Bernhard. “There is a word for that; it’s called theft. This campaign is about mobilizing public and political support to put a stop to this illegal behaviour.”
Large Zuckerberg WANTED posters have been installed across the country in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Halifax and Montreal. The poster (pictured, right) will be featured in a national print advertising buy and can be downloaded from a website – newsthief.ca
“Just last month, Australia became the latest country to require Facebook to pay news organizations for content, recognizing the broad positive effects of journalism for society as a whole,” says Bernhard. “The COVID pandemic and the lethal blow it is delivering to their media is the reason Australia has moved quickly to bring Facebook to heel, not the excuse for inaction being offered up by Justin Trudeau.
“Inaction on the part of the federal government has hastened the demise of professional journalism. Media companies which finance journalism have been in steady decline for the past several years, a downward trend that has been accelerated by the covid-19 pandemic. More than 2,000 Canadian media jobs have been lost since mid-March. More than 50 outlets have closed, and dozens more have made deep cuts.
“Facebook behaves like an outlaw because our government lets Zuckerberg write his own rules. They pay no taxes in Canada, suffer no consequences for publishing illegal content and make billions here selling ads against content produced by others without compensation. They won’t stop breaking the law until our government forces them to. This is a campaign to make Facebook follow the rule of law.”
FRIENDS is the citizens' independent advocate for Canadian journalism, storytelling and public broadcasting, and is not affiliated with any broadcaster or political party.
Download the poster here
