For over a year, Imprint has been silent on Instagram. On Oct. 1, Imprint created a new Instagram account, @uwimprintfiles. This account will act as a secondary account in place of the original account @uwimprint, where all content is blocked and the page instead shows: “People in Canada can’t see this content. In response to Canadian government legislation, news content can’t be viewed in Canada.” 

If you’re wondering what this means, you’re not alone. Bill C-18 was passed on June 22, 2023 as the Online News Act. The act states that “large digital platforms [are required] to bargain fairly with news businesses for their content.” Only Google and Meta meet the statutory criteria as “large” digital news intermediaries. In other words, Google and Meta must pay news publishers in order to display news and journalism on their platforms in Canada. This includes links to news, meaning Canadian users are unable even to share links to news sites and articles. 

Within the same month, both companies retaliated against Bill C-18 and stated that they will block news on their platforms. In August 2023, Meta proceeded to block all news on Facebook and Instagram for users in Canada, although Instagram Threads remains unaffected. On Nov. 29, 2023, the Government of Canada and Google reached an agreement of an annual $100 million instead of the original, uncapped proposal of paying based on user traffic, which Google called a “link tax.” Meta, however, remains committed to their position of blocking all news content. 

Under a scan for keywords and business categories, accounts flagged as representing newspapers or magazines have been blocked on Instagram and Facebook. Accounts featuring sports news, arts, and culture are still available, while some news accounts have managed to go undetected, such as the Tribune, McGill’s independent newspaper. However, most news sources small and large have been affected, including student publications like Imprint. 

“I remember being really, really upset. We had quite a few followers on our account — Instagram was definitely the way we were reaching students the most,” said Chiara Wallace, senior social media and layout editor at the Western Gazette. “It seems like such a small thing I think, to other people, but when it comes to reaching students you’re trying to reach them where they already are, and they’re on Instagram all the time.”

The Meta block in August took many by surprise, especially considering that the act was to take effect in December 2023. “One day we could see our Instagram account and the next day it [went] poof… we couldn’t see any of the posts we were putting up,” said Natasha Baldin, editor-in-chief for the Charlatan at Carleton University. “We [have] spent the last year kind of in shock and paralysis… What do we do, how do we adapt to this, what’s the best way to go forward?”

The role of social media for student publications

Given that many current students do not use or even have Facebook, which is also owned by Meta, minimal student impact seems to have occurred  after news became unavailable on the platform. “Amongst my friends, the only people on Facebook are ones that stay in contact with family or are on it [solely] because they have another club that operates through Facebook,” said Allie Moustakis, co-editor-in-chief at the Queen’s Journal from Queen’s University.

Instagram, however,  has been a critical tool to reach and engage with students. “[It] was our biggest platform, it was our most-used social media. We did fairly well — it would garner a lot of attention [for] our website which obviously was a great help,” Moustakis said.

For student publications, Instagram posts were used to promote and link stories in an easy and efficient way, reaching large numbers as writers and photographers would repost their work on personal accounts as well. Co-editor-in-chief at the Queen’s Journal Skylar Soroka stated: “I think it’s incredibly important to give credit [where] credit is due. Social media, especially in this age, is a very important vehicle in showing our work… I think journalists often go underappreciated and this ban just contributes to that idea.”

Wallace shared similar sentiments: “We had so many things that we were doing and it honestly felt like a disservice to not have the Instagram [account] to promote our work and to promote people [at the Gazette] who were doing such great work for us.”

Without the ability to be seen on Instagram, various student publications have tried other social media platforms such as TikTok, but have found it difficult to mimic Instagram. 

At the Charlatan: “We didn’t see a ton of engagement last year, especially on social media. We had been on Twitter [X] and TikTok for a little bit, none of which were reaching our students because realistically, students are on Instagram and that’s mainly where we’re going to reach them,” Baldin said. 

At the Queen’s Journal: “For us, [TikTok] wasn’t that successful because… Instagram is our primary way of spreading information and with TikTok I think you need to be a little bit more creative, so we’re still working on how we can elevate that role to increase engagement,” Soroka said.

At the University of Guelph’s Ontarion: “We tried TikTok first which wasn’t successful. We found that every time we wanted to do a post we had to do video editing and it was such a drain on resources… the return on that was just not very high,” said executive director Patrick Sutherland.

Similarly, it has been difficult at Imprint to find a platform that replicates the features and reach of Instagram: “We’ve been experimenting a bit with TikTok and other mediums but in terms of the ability to interact, Instagram is a better place for that. We haven’t been able to replace the ways we were using Instagram for putting out questions or seeing if there were followers who might be interested in talking to us about a certain story, or even just the polls and [functions] like that,” said publications manager Andres Fuentes. 

That’s not to say that Instagram is the be-all and end-all of student engagement. Some student publications have been investing back into traditional methods, before the age of social media. At Guelph’s Ontarion, the team is leaning into the renewed interest of analog and 90’s technologies through poster campaigns. Additionally, in-person engagement efforts have increased, going beyond the typical orientation week introduction. “We’ve definitely been trying to up our in-person interactions with the campus community. Every time we release a new issue, on publishing day we’re down at the main courtyard of the university centre here on campus. We’re always handing out newspapers, we even have some extra events that we’re doing… even to just teach people more about media literacy,” said Taylor Pipe, editor-in-chief of the Ontarion. She stated that these face-to-face interactions with students, readers, and prospective volunteers has provided the opportunity to build valuable personal relationships with the university community.

Despite having no activity on Instagram for over a year, the Queen’s Journal has been working on maintaining strong visibility on campus. “There are other ways to direct people, and people do know of the Journal because we have the advantage of being around for so long and already well-established,” Soroka said. “Our publishing house as well is right on campus so we have that brand identity [and] we have a good amount of newspaper stands on campus that our logo can be seen on. I guess in terms of traditional marketing and advertising we have that down pretty well.”

Yet even with a strong presence on campus, there are aspects of engagement that have taken a hit. “I feel like in the past we had more contributors. A lot of that interest — that first point of contact — would be made through Instagram… because [students are] obviously seeing all of the stories there, what they’re interested in. That kind of went down a little bit because you’re not able to [outreach] if people are not really seeing it on Instagram,” said Moustakis. In the meantime, the Journal has made calls through their newsletter for employees and contributors. 

For better or worse, Instagram was a significantly helpful tool. According to Sutherland, “[The Ontarion] decided that Instagram is still the best way to reach our core audience, and I guess it was over [this past] summer that we knew that nothing was going to change and we knew that we had to do something different.”

Over one year since the Meta block, more student publications are coming back to Instagram

Two months after the ban in mid-October 2023, the Western Gazette decided to create another Instagram account, now under @westerngazettedocs instead of @westerngazette. “We were definitely scared with the idea of making a second account because we weren’t sure if we would get banned immediately — if they [Meta] would [catch] onto us,” Wallace said. She explained the uncertainty regarding how strictly Meta would enforce the block of news.

Hoping to not get flagged, the Gazette has put a visual emphasis on their second account, featuring more photography and straying away from the usual template posts with a headline, picture, quote, and excerpt. “We wanted to make [the account] with a bit more purpose to it, because at the end of the day, we had no clue if we were ever gonna get our first account back, what the timeline for that was gonna look like — we never knew it was going to be this long with the second account,” Wallace said.

Other publications have started their second accounts much later, with activity only beginning in fall 2024. “I have thought about [creating a new Instagram account] but all the advice that I had gotten from the journalists that I was working with last summer were like, ‘Wait it out, don’t create a new account, you’ll lose all your engagement, it’s so hard to start from scratch,’ [which is] fair but… it sort of seemed like a natural progression since it had been a full year since we couldn’t post on Instagram,” Baldin said. 

This sentiment was shared at Imprint as well. “It’s been a year now, I honestly thought it was going to be resolved quicker than this. Either way, whether the government was going to give in or whether Meta would come to an agreement with the government, I did not think it was going to last [for over] a year,” Fuentes said. “After a year, we [figure] that if this is going to be for the long haul, then we should… actually make the effort to do something different rather than hoping that we’re just allowed to go back to the way it was before.”

At the time of the interview, Tthe Queen’s Journal wasis in the midst of planning the vision for their second account. Like Imprint, they had been hoping that the Meta block would be resolved. Moustakis explained: “I think that was the biggest reason we held off [on] creating a second account… There was something in the back of our mind [wondering], ‘What if we do get our second account back, then what kind of confusion will that cause for people, what kind of confusion will that cause for us?’… Especially because our original account is much more established and has an influx of posts that we obviously wouldn’t be able to get back or transfer.” 

Staying under the radar

The boundaries of what will be flagged as news by Meta are still unclear. The Ontarion has attempted to contact Meta through Instagram but found no success. “We found the lack of communication to be the most challenging thing. We’ve reached out to Meta to try and get clarification and we heard nothing from them so… We want to follow the rules, we just don’t know what they are,” Sutherland said. “We were going to try and send in a letter to their corporate headquarters but given the lack of success we’ve had otherwise and their lack of transparency around it, we’ve got better things to do.”

With no particular rulebook, student publications are moving forward with growing their second accounts. “I think we’re all just at the mercy of [Meta]. It kind of feels like we’re transporting alcohol during Prohibition, right? We know that it’s technically illegal but everyone’s doing it. It’s a service that’s needed so I don’t see any other option,” said Andrew Wilimek, co-editor-in-chief at the University of Ottawa’s Fulcrum. 

Amongst all seven student publications interviewed, standard practice appears to be about watching the lingo. At Toronto Metropolitan University’s Eyeopener, Lily Han has been a digital producer managing the social media accounts: “What was drilled into me when I first started was that with the ban and everything, be careful with certain words and lingos to not get flagged by Instagram because they do watch out for those things,” she said.

Since news cannot be linked on Instagram, many publications have been finding loopholes to link their stories. Sam Tinajero, social media manager at the Charlatan, highlighted using a Linktree to go around the block of news links. 

In terms of content, there are mixed feelings around what can be risked posting. “There was almost a bit of apprehension of like, are we allowed to post something like this? We don’t want to be too newsy and get flagged by Instagram and get that [second account] taken down, too,” Pipe said.

As such, there’s been a push for more creative posts amongst publications. Han from the Eyeopener says, “The media team does great content, we have Blinked, Drink of the Week: Bar Battles… [this type of] content breaks up what we’re putting out so it feels like a content creator page rather than too newsy — I think it gives that good balance of both. It’s kind of like trial and error to see how far we can push it.”

Starting a new account also means building a new following all over again, and Tinajero has been effectively analyzing social media trends to boost engagement: “It has been a bit challenging, when you start from scratch you have to think outside the box and be strategic about how much you’re posting, what kind of content you’re posting, because it’s really just about reach. And then balancing it out with the kind of content we want to put out that might not have the best reach but is still a representation of our brand.” At the same time, she noted, “In social media management and strategy there’s no silver spoon [of] ‘This is going to work,’ it’s really just trial and error.”

Although less news-focused, the diversification of content has its positives. Soroka stated: “I think this gives time for sports and arts and culture and all these other sections because all that work being done and all that reporting is equally important. Every part of the paper is integral, so I think it would be a good time to diversify the content and also show that we write other things that [aren’t] just campus, politics, and news oriented.” 

Pipe shared that there’s been a change in content at the Ontarion as well, focusing more on community updates by doing Q and A’s and collaborations with other campus groups. “As much as I am a news nerd, I’m a little more likely to watch the content that’s fun and quirky like that on my own,” she said.

Considering that these are social media accounts, it feels natural to incorporate more light-weight, fun content. Fuentes said, “I think just by the type of content we want to be creating on Instagram, you’re going to get a diversity of content. It’s definitely less news heavy than, say, our website. There’s a little bit more social content on our… socials.”

For the Fulcrum, the transition to a new account meant reevaluating their goals and as a result, making changes for more reader-friendly posts rather than merely redirecting users to a story link. “We’ve essentially branched into some made-for-Instagram posts. For example, our student union just had an election and while we still publish[ed] an article, instead of accompanying that article with just that headline banner and two slides of summaries, we attached graphs, we attached charts, we attached stats, we attached pictures of all the candidates, and really [made] it a much more user-friendly format. We’re making it for Instagram — we’re meeting the readers where they’re at,” Wilimek said. 

Looking at the bigger picture

Meta’s news block has directly stripped student publications’ tool for publicity that was once able to freely reach the student body. Soroka described the block as the cherry on top of the dying industry of journalism: less publicity means less readership, which means less printing and therefore less journalism. 

Not only does the block affect publications today, but calls into question the future of student journalism. Sutherland stated: “This feels like another example of student newspapers being caught in the middle of some battle between, in this case Meta and the Canadian government. But it’s often non-profit and student news that gets left out and suffers the most. Student newspapers are… the place where a lot of future journalists decide they want to become a journalist. So a lot of the big names that you hear in Canadian news only decided to start because they walked through those doors, and if someone’s not hearing about it on Instagram, are we losing future journalists?”

The reality is that many people get their news from social media. In November 2023, Statistics Canada stated that 24 per cent of Canadians get their news and information from social media. “On a broader picture, not just how it’s impacting us [student publications], it’s disturbing that we know not just students but plenty of the population goes to social media as a source for news, and if they can’t see news from news providers you end up getting it from second or third [hand] sources which is opening up [room] for more misinformation. I think it’s a significant problem for all of Canada that Facebook or Instagram isn’t allowing Canadians to see news from the direct source,” Fuentes said. 

Directly from the Government of Canada website, the first paragraph under the Online News Act states: “News outlets play a vital role in maintaining a healthy democracy. News and journalism serve to inform communities, drive civic engagement, and counter the rise of disinformation.” With this goal in mind, the Online News Act has certainly brought an ironic cascading effect into the world of student journalism and beyond.