Tens of thousands of Canadians turn to Facebook groups to find and share wildfire news.BC Wildfire/Reuters
Since wildfires began ravaging Manitoba last month, Chantelle Senyk has felt on edge as she repeatedly refreshes Facebook and scrolls through alarming photos and videos of forests engulfed in flames and smoky skies.
Although checking the social-media platform on her phone gives her anxiety, for Ms. Senyk, who lives in the northern small town of The Pas, Facebook is also a lifeline.
She and her family rely on its community groups to get the latest updates on the fires, including evacuation notices. When Ms. Senyk’s sister recently evacuated, a connection she made in a Facebook group was able to confirm her home in Denare Beach, Sask., was gone.
Ms. Senyk is one of the tens of thousands of Canadians in areas affected by wildfires who depend on Facebook groups to find and share news about the spread, evacuation notices and community resources. But since 2023, Meta has banned articles from news outlets on Facebook and Instagram, a move some media experts warn could prevent critical information from reaching the most people during such emergencies.
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There are currently more than 220 wildfires burning across the country, at least 97 of which are deemed out of control. Manitoba and Saskatchewan have evacuated more than 30,000 people, and over the weekend, new wildfires broke out in Northwestern Ontario, prompting military support.
Archie McLean, the former managing editor of CBC North based out of Yellowknife, says rural and northern communities are particularly affected by Meta’s news ban during wildfire season.
“Facebook use in northern, rural and Indigenous communities is much higher than in southern Canada. Facebook is like the window to the world: It’s how they communicate with friends, how they get the news,” said Mr. McLean, who is an assistant journalism professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary. “When it comes to wildfires, it’s often rural and northern communities that are bearing the brunt of this, and they’re doing it without news on their most popular and reliable platform.”
Meta began blocking Canadians from viewing, accessing and sharing news article links on Facebook and Instagram in August, 2023, in response to Bill C-18, the federal law that forces online platforms to compensate Canadian news organizations. However, about a year into the ban, three-quarters of Canadians were unaware of the ban, according to a survey from the Media Ecosystem Observatory, a research group at McGill University that analyzes digital threats to democracy.
Aengus Bridgman, the director of Media Ecosystem Observatory, says Canadians are generally passive news consumers who believe that they will be informed as long as they’re connected to social-media platforms in some way.
“There’s a very high level of people who don’t know news has been blocked, so they might continue to think they’re going to get the news they need when, in fact, they’re not. Some of that news potentially could be life saving, but it could also impact behaviours in a variety of ways,” says Mr. Bridgman.
Meta says during disasters such as wildfires the company launches a crisis response page on Facebook that posts information from official sources, as well as other relevant posts from local authorities and community members.
“It’s simply not true that we’re not providing access to vital information. Our crisis response tools connect millions of Canadians to official information from government agencies and emergency services, and governments use our platforms to communicate directly and in real time with their residents,” said Julia Perreira, a spokesperson for Meta.
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During disasters and other emergencies, social media has also become fertile ground for misinformation. Throughout the devastating 2023 wildfires across Canada and last year’s fire in Jasper, Alta., some trending posts falsely claimed that the federal government set the fires and intentionally did not provide resources to affected communities.
Ms. Senyk says she’s also seen some misinformation spread on Facebook recently, such as a post that falsely claimed two firefighters died in Denare Beach
“If people are posting things that aren’t true, that gets everybody else worked up. They’re calling their families who are on the front lines and it’s creating more chaos when there doesn’t need to be,” says Ms. Senyk.
Mr. Bridgman says social media platforms have an increased duty to its users that they’re failing to fulfill.
“When you’re Facebook and you have a million users in a province where there are systematic wildfires, what responsibility do you have to them? How can you support the emergency response? My very strong sense at the moment is that there is either very few or no one within these large social companies who ask themselves those questions,” he says.
