Residents of the Northwest Territories are feeling the effect of the news vacuum on Facebook as they flee communities that are under threat by wildfires.
But industry observers say the regional media landscape was barren long before Meta — Facebook's parent company — pulled news content from its platforms in Canada, and that the current situation highlights a long-standing dearth of local news coverage.
Yellowknife's 20,000 residents and two nearby First Nations have been ordered to evacuate by noon on Friday, as crews battle more than 200 blazes in the Northwest Territories. The wildfires have burned an area about four times the size of Prince Edward Island, but no deaths have been reported. But Canadians can no longer access news on Facebook. Daniel Tsai, a lecturer in communication, culture, information and technology at the University of Toronto, said Meta's actions are harming society and putting people's lives at risk.
Local newsrooms in the North and the rest of the country have been deeply damaged by years of declining advertising revenue, which has largely migrated to companies like Meta and Google.
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