So, Meta hit a snag, but they’ve patched things up. Apparently, some Threads users in Canada were having a tough time reading and sharing news on the app due to a glitch. A Meta spokesperson spilled the beans to Engadget about it. Just to clarify, even though Meta pulled the plug on news content for Canadian users on Facebook and Instagram earlier, Threads was supposed to be in the clear.
But here’s the twist – Threads users in Canada started getting alerts that made them scratch their heads. The message with Threads branding said, “People in Canada can’t view this content,” blaming it on Canadian government legislation. Talk about a head-scratcher, right?
No one’s really sure how widespread this hiccup was or how long it stuck around. Reports of the issue popped up on Monday, and some folks were still grappling with it on Tuesday morning. A user named Pedro Marques even took to posting about it, saying, “Well… that sucks. @meta is escalating their news blocking in Canada, previously only on Facebook and Instagram, now on Threads.”
Meta’s side of the story? As per reports they say, for now, the Online News Act’s rules don’t apply to Threads. But the fact that this notice showed up got people speculating – could Meta decide to drop the news content hammer on Threads in the future?
We’ve all seen the tech giants locking horns with countries over news payments, and Canada has been no exception. Meta had already nixed news on Facebook and Instagram in response to Canada’s Online News Act, and Google made a deal to fork out around $100 million a year to Canadian publishers.
Some Threads users are already feeling the impact. One user named dexter was like, “How will Threads replace Twitter when I can’t even click on a news story in Canada without getting blocked by Meta?” Tough times in the world of Threads, it seems.
