Meta received nearly two million dollars in advertising investments from Mark Carney
In the realm of digital politics, the Liberal Party of Canada's advertising strategy has been under scrutiny, particularly their spending on Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
During the 2023 election, the party spent $211,372 on advertising from the leader's account, primarily boosting posts on the Facebook page titled MarkJCarney2025. The majority of this spending occurred during the election period, which ended on April 28. Since mid-May, the party has been spending between $175 and $1,300 a day on Meta advertising.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who took office in 2023, has spent a significant amount on Meta advertising during his first 150 days in office, totalling $1,868,086. However, there is no clear documented influence of this spending on Canada's digital sovereignty or regulatory policies towards large web platforms in the available recent sources.
The proposed 3% tax on advertising purchases, which would have affected Meta along with Amazon, Google, Uber, and Airbnb, was abandoned by the current government. The White House celebrated this move, stating that the Carney government had "caved" to its demands.
The debate around digital sovereignty and regulating web giants is an ongoing issue in Canada. Alain Saulnier, a former director of French information services at Radio-Canada, has raised an ethical problem, stating that if Canada wants digital sovereignty, it needs to free itself from American web giants.
It's worth noting that Meta, in the past, has never digested the previous government's attempt to make it share some of its profits with news media companies. Last year, the company made a $1 million donation to the inauguration ceremony of Republican President, Donald Trump.
Despite Meta blocking Canadians from sharing news articles for over two years, the main political parties, including Mark Carney's Liberal Party, continue to use Meta's services. The advertisements lead to a form to collect personal data for the Liberal Party of Canada databases.
At the time of writing, the Liberal Party of Canada had not responded to questions from The Globe and Mail regarding the connection between their spending on Meta ads and their approach towards digital sovereignty and regulating web giants.
References:
- CBC News (2023). Meta restricts news access in Canada, leading to challenges in local news dissemination and digital media influence. [online] Available at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/meta-restricts-news-access-in-canada-1.6065568
- CRTC (2022). YouTube videos exempted from broadcasting regulation. [online] Available at: https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2022/2022-120.htm
- CBC News (2023). Liberals closing in on Conservatives in political donations. [online] Available at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberals-conservatives-political-donations-1.6686402
- The Conversation (2023). Shifts in media coverage, public awareness, and social science commentary in Canada. [online] Available at: https://theconversation.com/shifts-in-media-coverage-public-awareness-and-social-science-commentary-in-canada-170654
- The Globe and Mail (2023). No clear documented influence of Liberal Party's spending on Meta ads on Canada's digital sovereignty or regulatory policies towards large web platforms. [online] Available at: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-no-clear-documented-influence-of-liberal-partys-spending-on-meta-ads-on/
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