Inside The Narwhal

How to stay connected with climate news in Canada

We can no longer see our own Instagram feed. At a time when climate reporting is more important than ever, threats by social media giants won’t stop us from reaching our readers

By Karan Saxena

July 20, 2023 3 min. read

This article is more than 1 year old

I can no longer see posts, stories or The Narwhal’s own feed from our Instagram account.

As some of you may know, I’m The Narwhal’s audience engagement editor and it’s part of my job to interact with readers like you about all of our award-winning reporting. So it’s a problem when someone blocks me from doing that job.

It’s not a quandary I’m facing alone; outlets like the CBC, Chatelaine, The Tyee, The Breach and others have recently written about similar experiences. “People in Canada can’t see your content,” a message reads, as part of testing being done by Meta to simulate what the platform would look like without Canadian news.

You’ve read all about it, but here’s the short version: Google and Meta have said they will block Canadian news content for readers in Canada — on Instagram and Google products like Search, Discover and News — in response to the federal government’s Online News Act, a law that requires tech giants to negotiate deals with news outlets and pay for featuring news content on their platforms.

This means all recent stories you might have read — Yukon First Nations adopting a youth climate plan; how an Olympic coach is teaching young racialized women to swim; or what causes wildfires — will no longer be available on apps you use most on your smartphones.

We know people across Canada are worried. Not only have we heard it firsthand, but a recent poll by Angus Reid Institute suggests about 63 per cent of readers are concerned about what those smartphone apps, that are a part of so many people’s daily routine, will look like once the law comes into effect.

Even if you miss seeing us on your feed, we won’t go anywhere. After all, The Narwhal was born to produce in-depth environmental journalism in Canada — which can often feel dark and hopeless — to find hope and imagine what’s possible for the natural world.

And as this tug-of-war plays out, we haven’t lost that hope.

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Get The Narwhal in your inbox

Independent, investigative journalism you won’t find anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our newsletter.

So how can you make sure you don’t lose sight of The Narwhal’s reporting?

Sign up for our weekly newsletter (and tell your friends to subscribe, too!)
Follow us on Twitter, Mastodon and Bluesky
Follow our channels on Apple News, Flipboard or any other app you get your news from
Add us to your homepage:

A screenshot demonstrating how to add a web page to home screen on an iPhone — Tap the share button on the bottom of the page and scroll down to “Add to Home Screen.” Screenshot: Karan Saxena / The Narwhal

A screenshot demonstrating how to add a web page to home screen on an Android phone — Tap the share button on the bottom of the page and scroll down to “Add to Home Screen.” Screenshot: Karan Saxena / The Narwhal

Have more suggestions for The Narwhal’s reporting to reach more people despite threats by social media giants? Email me at karan@thenarwhal.ca.

Another year of keeping a close watch

Here at The Narwhal, we don’t use profit, awards or pageviews to measure success. The thing that matters most is real-world impact — evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.

And in 2024, our stories were raised in parliaments across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.

In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”

We’d like to thank you for paying attention. And if you’re able to donate anything at all to help us keep doing this work in 2025 — which will bring a whole lot we can’t predict — thank you so very much.

Will you help us hold the powerful accountable in the year to come by giving what you can today?

Yes, I’ll support independent journalism

Another year of keeping a close watch

I’ll support independent journalism

Published By

Karan Saxena

Karan Saxena is an immigrant settler living on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ territories. Karan is The Narwhal’s audi...

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