Evidence of meeting #79 for Canadian Heritage in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was meta.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:30 p.m.
Global Policy Director, Meta Platforms Inc.
—of it through that, and now I am informed.
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
Excellent.
There are about 13 non-profits, all backed by Meta, currently blitzing through state houses to kill online harms legislation. These same organizations have consistently lobbied against all forms of tech regulation, be it anti-sex trafficking laws or antitrust reform, while failing to disclose their financial links to big tech. Non-profits like NetChoice, backed by Meta for the last eight years, are even coordinating litigation right now to oppose legislation in numerous states.
Is Meta currently funding any Canadian third party organizations that have lobbied or advocated on behalf of tech regulations in Canada?
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
Meta has listed all third party U.S. organizations it funds in the United States on its political engagement page. Will you commit to provide a similar list of Meta-funded Canadian third party organizations if you do undertake that or if we find out that you do, which is probably more likely?
May 8th, 2023 / 12:30 p.m.
Global Policy Director, Meta Platforms Inc.
I wish we had money to spend these days on these sorts of things, but if you would like a list—
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
You're just a little upstart that's struggling in the world, Mr. Chan.
12:30 p.m.
Global Policy Director, Meta Platforms Inc.
Madam Chair, may I answer the question?
12:30 p.m.
Global Policy Director, Meta Platforms Inc.
Madam Chair, may I answer the question?
12:30 p.m.
Global Policy Director, Meta Platforms Inc.
I have an answer, though, Madam Chair.
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
We're going to move on, Mr. Chan, because clearly, it's again nothing but contempt and evasiveness.
I can ask softball questions like members of the Conservative Party, and I know you'll answer those directly, quickly and succinctly, but it's weird to me, and I think it's weird to Canadians, to say on one hand that news isn't important to your platform, that it's only 3% and it's not important, even though you want to be a trusted source of information, while on the other hand you're entering into deals with 18 publishers, and we have no idea who they are.
You are picking the favourites. We're trying to balance the playing field.
Is news important? On the other hand, you're saying you spend hundreds of millions of dollars on news and enter into deals and you're good players even though you're a small tech start-up that struggles to get by day to day.
Which one is it, Mr. Chan?
12:35 p.m.
Global Policy Director, Meta Platforms Inc.
I need to just clarify a few things that are misinformed in that statement.
12:35 p.m.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
You mean specifically in my last comment? Yes, please go ahead.
12:35 p.m.
Global Policy Director, Meta Platforms Inc.
If you're looking for the list of companies we have supported, we do have annual reports we release in Canada every year that show who we fund and who we support. There were things like Canada 2020 in the past, things like Equal Voice, organizations like OCTEVAW in Ottawa, things like the Broadbent Institute. We're happy to provide those for you. They are public. I believe they've been subject to access to information requests. We'd be very pleased to share those with you, and I will ensure we do that, Madam Chair.
12:35 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you. That's the end of that time.
Now I need to speak to the committee.
You wanted to take 15 minutes out of this meeting. It would mean we could have a third round, if this committee is interested, but it would be a round of three minutes, three minutes, one-and-a-half minutes, one-and-a-half minutes, three minutes and three minutes. Are you in agreement to do that? That would give us 15 minutes in all. It would mean we would have 10 minutes, with a little five-minute overrun, for the 15-minute meeting.
Go ahead, Ms. Gladu.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Marilyn Gladu Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
Just to clarify, Chair, I thought we had just started into the next round, in which we'd have five and the Liberals five, and so the next would be two and a half and two and a half. Is that wrong?
No. We just finished the round. Okay.