Police services across Canada are struggling with how to convey emergency information, including breaking news and details about missing persons, as Meta begins to permanently remove news from its social media platforms.

Meta is expected to remove all news for Canadian users in response to the Liberal government's Online News Act, which requires certain tech giants to pay for news content that is shared or redirected on their platforms.

When that happens, police forces will no longer be able to rely on links from local news outlets appearing on platforms like Facebook and Instagram for people while they scroll, although they will still be able to post their own news releases and other messages.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Saskatchewan stated that Meta's decision will affect how they obtain information for the public and that they are currently working through ways to maximize the distribution of their public safety messages.

In Manitoba, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police indicated that they would heavily rely on their own social media accounts for important public information.

Tara Seale, a spokesperson for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Manitoba, said, "At a local level, in rural Manitoba, our social media has good and immediate reach, and we still rely on that for our messaging,"

A spokesperson for the national headquarters of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police also stated that they would rely on alert systems and news releases, while continuing to review new social media platforms that could assist in communication.

However, it is not entirely clear how Meta's news ban will affect how police communicate. Kelly Dehn, the Director of Public Affairs for the Winnipeg Police Service, frankly stated, "We’re not sure what the impact will be."

When it comes to communicating about public safety, the more channels for news, the better, including through traditional media, Dehn said.

Seale noted that once the impacts become clearer, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Manitoba will adapt.

Richard Lachman, an associate professor of media production at Toronto Metropolitan University, indicated that police services and other institutions are used to changing how they communicate with the public as Canadians' relationships with traditional media have shifted in recent years, adding, "We don’t all watch TV or read newspapers or listen to the radio in the same way."
Dehn agreed, stating that police can no longer wait until 6 p.m. for news sites to publish a story, so they often seek other ways to quickly convey information to the public.

She added, "People are watching and consuming the news on their phones more than ever. So it’s important for us to get the message to them directly."

This issue has been on the minds of the Winnipeg Police Board long before Meta announced it would remove news links.

The board conducts a survey of citizens every two years, asking how people find out about police stories.

In the 2022 survey, it was found that the majority of people recalled Winnipeg Police news from press releases and news conferences. Thirty-five percent said they remembered seeing police news on their Facebook page, with 12 percent citing Instagram.

The survey also found that about 12 percent got police news only from Facebook. The survey does not clarify whether this was from traditional news stories posted on Facebook or from the police service's Facebook page, which has over 119,000 followers, but Dehn suspects it is a mix of both.

Lachman stated that police and other institutions need to go where the people are, noting that Facebook has had a huge impact in Canada.

Lachman remarked, "We have already been heavy consumers of Facebook on other platforms. This has changed a lot with generational shifts to things like TikTok."

"People will have to change our understanding of the value of the media we consume. We will have to go and try to pull that content directly."

Lachman said that in the meantime, finding and conveying information will become a game of cat and mouse.

"One organization might say we need to get this message out. We’re trying to do that through this channel. Did that work for you? Did that work for me?" He said, "It's not healthy."