Mainstream Indian news outlets amplified a false claim that the Canadian government blocked content on the Facebook page of an Australian news outlet restricting them from showing a press conference by India's Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and his Australian counterpart Penny Wong where the former made strong comments against Canada.
BOOM found the claims to be false. Neither the website of Australia Today nor its Facebook page were blocked under any specific order by the Canadian government. Posts on Australia Today's Facebook page are not visible because Meta has restricted access to all news content (local and international) on its platforms in Canada. Facebook owner Meta is in stalemate with the Canadian government over the country's Online News Act 2023 which seeks compensation for news businesses from dominant tech platforms such as Meta and Google.
The false claim was also made by the editor of The Australia Today outlet, and amplified by Indian news portal and India's Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson - Randhir Jaiswal.
Jaiswal in a press conference, called the outlet -- The Australia Today -- an important diaspora outlet, claiming that the block, "...yet again highlights the hypocrisy of Canada towards freedom of speech."
The false claim comes at a time when diplomatic relations between India and Canada are at their lowest. The two countries have been trading barbs at each other since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in September 2023, alleged involvement of Indian government agents in the killing of pro-Khalistani extremist and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. Both the countries have in a tit-for-tat move expelled top diplomats and removed consular officers. The frayed relations have also spilled on to the streets with regular reports of temples in Canada being defaced with anti-India graffiti and more recently, an attack by alleged pro-Khalistani members on devotees at the Hindu Sabha Mandir, Brampton.
On November 6, in a press conference in Canberra, Australia with the country's foreign minister, Jaishankar condemned the attacks and further made strong remarks against Canada, attributing the violence to "extremist forces given political space" in the country.
Media outlets including India Today, Indian Express, Times of India, NDTV, Deccan Herald, Hindustan Times, Money Control misreported by alleging a ban on Australia Today with headlines like, "Free speech champion Canada bans news outlet for airing Jaishankar presser." The news reports based their stories on Jaiswal's statement at the press conference. The same was also published by news channels Republic TV and Times Now. Outlets such as The Hindu and The Print, carried syndicated stories of PTI and ANI.
Right wing website OpIndia also published the false claim.
The editor of the Australia Today, a Melbourne based news website, Jitarth Jai Bharadwaj, added to the false claims in interviews to Indian news outlets like News18 and ANI claiming it was being "targeted", the same expressed in their statement on X, alleging that the ban was under "under orders from the Canadian government."
Several BJP functionaries also shared the fake claim calling out the Canadian government.
FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the claim of blocking of the website of The Australia today and its social media pages by the Canadian government are false.
Facebook posts of the Australia Today page are not visible on the platform because of a decision taken by Meta to restrict all news content local and international on its platforms in Canada. The extraordinary move is part of a stalemate between Meta and the Canadian government, which introduced the Online News Act 2023 seeking compensation for news businesses for their content, from dominant platforms.
The Act passed in 2023 specifies that big tech companies, the likes of Meta, Google should pay news businesses to publish their content on their platform. Meta, in resistance to the Act "blocked access to news on Facebook and Instagram for Canadians."
Meta's decision effectively means that news content from Canada or any part of the world is not accessible to Facebook users in Canada currently.
We first looked at the screenshot added by Jitharth Jai Bharadwaj, managing editor of by The Australia Today in the outlet's statement on X and noticed that it is from the Facebook page of the outlet, as it is visible in Canada. In the bottom centre of the screenshot, a partial line can be read - "People in Canada can't see this content..."
BOOM found that this screenshot shared by Bharadwaj is cropped with only the first line shown to support the false claim.
We also asked a resident of Canada to access the same Facebook page and found that the full notice reads, "People in Canada can't see this content. In response to Canadian government legislation, news content can't be viewed in Canada."
A comparison of the two with the cropped part highlighted be seen below :
The notice has a 'Learn More' hyperlink which leads to a page titled, "Why can't I share or view news content on Facebook?"
We also accessed the Learn More page as visible to a Facebook user in Canada, and found that it explains the reason as, "In response to Canada's Online News Act, news content from Pages connected to a news outlet can no longer be viewed or shared in Canada". The second subhead is titled, "If you are in Canada this means" and elaborates, "You can no longer share or view news links or content on Facebook, including news articles and audio-visual content posted by news outlets. You can no longer see links or content from any news outlet pages, even if you search for them or follow them."
The cropped screenshot omits the line in the notice which explains that the reason the news outlet's posts are not visible on Facebook in Canada is because of the the platform changing its policy in response to the local legislation. The 'Learn More' tab which detailed the reason was also cropped in the screenshot.
To further ascertain that under the Canadian Online News Act, no news outlet can show their posts on Facebook, we asked another resident of Canada to access pages of local Canadian news portals. We found that Facebook pages of local Canadian outlets also did not show posts, with only the same notice as above seen on them.
The Facebook pages of Toronto Sun, CBC and Toronto Star is below
We also ran a search for Facebook pages of Indian news outlets Times of India and NDTV and found no posts visible.
BOOM asked multiple Canadian Facebook users to access Australia Today's page and the pages of local and international news outlets for this story. All of them confirmed that posts were not visible on any of pages. Canadian residents also confirmed to us that the website of Australia Today was loading and that all articles on the site were accessible.
They also told BOOM that the social media pages of news outlets had not been showing posts since December 2023 since the Online News Act was passed in the country.
In addition, we asked them to send a screenshot of BOOM's Facebook page as visible in Canada and found that no posts were visible.
When contacted by BOOM, Bharadwaj, founder editor of Australia Today reiterated that the block was following them posting about Jaishankar's press conference.
"All governments block under some or other legislation itself, the same has happened to our page. Government do not inform and block access...in Western worlds, I mean." He added that the page was visible a few days ago and the no show of posts were recent. "I cannot go back in time and provide you a screenshot showing that the posts of our page were visible in Canada."