N.S. news: Facebook important source for weather updates in disasters [Video]

HALIFAX –

Residents of small communities across Canada are finding creative ways of getting around Facebook’s news blackout to share updates about dangerous weather events, but they say it’s still tough to get information to people quickly on the platform.

One year after Meta, Facebook’s parent company, banned all links to Canadian news on its platforms — a reaction to the federal government’s legislation requiring tech giants to compensate news companies for linking to their content — the site remains a critical tool for people to stay informed about events such as flash floods.

In the fall of 2021, Amanda Dunfield helped launch a Facebook page dedicated to informing residents of Windsor, N.S., about repeated sewer overflows after heavy rainfalls, and to organize them to do something about it.

Three years later, the group boasts nearly 3,000 members. But Dunfield said that Meta’s news ban, which went into effect in August 2023, …