Canada's Quebecor to pull its ads from Facebook, Instagram

(Reuters) -Quebecor said on Wednesday it will pull its ads from Facebook and Instagram, following Meta Platforms' decision to stop access to news on the platforms in Canada over a law requiring payments to local news publishers.

The "Online News Act", or House of Commons bill C-18, introduced in April last year laid out rules to force companies such as Meta and Alphabet-owned Google to negotiate commercial deals and pay news publishers for their content.

Google and Meta previously said they would block access to news articles in Canada if the legislation is passed.

Quebecor, the telecoms operator which also owns media outlets and newspapers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how much it spends on advertisements on Facebook and Instagram.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cogeco, which owns and operates radio stations across Quebec, also said on Wednesday that it has decided to withdraw its advertising investments from Meta.

Canada's media industry has called for tighter regulation of internet giants to allow news businesses to recoup financial losses suffered in the years that Facebook and Google gained a greater share of the online advertising market.

(Reporting by Tiyashi Datta and Samrhitha Arunasalam in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Shailesh Kuber)