Mark Zuckerberg

British Columbia's premier issued a direct plea to the head of Meta on Monday as he implored the social media giant to reinstate access to Canadian news on its platforms amid the province's ongoing wildfire crisis.

The decision comes a week after the company announced it would block news on its social-media platforms if the Liberal government's Online News Act passes in its current form. 

Now, the question is whether his bet on the social media company will pay off for him — and what it will mean for the rest of us, writes columnist Max Fawcett. 

A broad swath of Canadians has a sour view of Facebook, with half of respondents to a new poll saying it should be regulated or broken up as a "corporate image" crisis rocks the social media giant yet again.

News is helping make some corporations very wealthy. Canadians expect their government to redistribute some of this wealth to the producers of the news they need to live in a healthy and sturdy democracy.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says governments need to be wary of taking steps to regulate social media platforms that could be used by authoritarian regimes to further oppress citizens and stifle free speech.

Lawmakers from 12 countries grilled Facebook officials in Ottawa after top executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg ignored a subpoena to come before a committee of 12 countries on Tuesday.

Politicians are increasingly concerned that social media giants have become so big, powerful and rich that they are effectively above the law — at least in a small country like Canada.

A number of organizations, including ProPublica, have developed tools to let the public see exactly how Facebook users are being targeted by advertisers.     

Canada's privacy watchdog says he's worried that privacy rights in Canada are being cast aside as both public and private entities rush to mine digital data from citizens and customers.

More than 87 million people were affected by a data scandal involving political campaigning firm Cambridge Analytica and Facebook, the social media company said on Wednesday. The estimated total includes more than 600,000 Canadians.

Nearly three-quarters of Canadian Facebook users say they will make at least some change to how they use the social media platform in the wake of a data mining scandal.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is admitting his platform failed to protect the data of its users and is planning to audit all apps that "had access to large amounts of information" before it introduced restrictions in 2014.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg outlined the rationale in a Facebook post, saying content from "businesses, brands and media" had begun to crowd out the more personal moments which he said are at the core of the network.

Facebook has introduced a new "cyber hygiene" guide. But the social media giant and the federal government both admit much more needs to be done to safeguard the 2019 election.