The discovery of news articles and videos on Facebook and Instagram will soon be a thing of the past, as Meta announced that it will officially end the availability of news in Canada.

Today, Meta said on Tuesday that in a few weeks it will remove news for all Canadian users on Facebook and Instagram.

In June, the company began conducting limited testing of news for up to five percent of users.

Rachel Curran, Head of Public Policy at Meta Canada, said: "In order to provide clarity for the millions of Canadians and businesses using our platforms, we announce today that we have begun the process of permanently ending the availability of news in Canada."

This means that Canadians will not be able to share or view news articles and other content published by publishers and broadcasters, including international outlets. Additionally, videos that disappear after 24 hours are also expected to be affected by the ban.

In this regard, Paul Dejan, President of News Media Canada, stated that this "excessive" action will harm user experience and diminish the value of the Facebook platform.

Dejan said in a statement: "Without access to fact-based news created by real journalists, Facebook will become less attractive to users and advertisers. We expect more and more advertisers and their agencies to begin pulling ads from the platform in response to this unilateral, undemocratic, and unreasonable move."

The federal government and some companies have already responded by ending advertising with Meta.

Meta also stated that it determines news content based on how it is described in the Liberal government's Online News Act, which became law earlier this summer.

It said that the move to ban news is in response to the bill, which requires tech giants to enter agreements to compensate Canadian news outlets for content that is shared or redirected in other ways on their platforms.

Ottawa has also said that the law creates a level playing field between online advertising giants and the shrinking news industry.

The federal government stated that since 2008, nearly 500 media outlets have closed in 335 communities across Canada, where more than 20,000 journalists have lost their jobs, while Google and Meta continue to bring in billions of advertising dollars.

Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Online News Act is also set to come into effect by the end of the year, as the Liberal government is developing regulations, a process that Meta is not keen to be a part of.