How Facebook's news ban helped a Regina garbage company be voted 'best online news'

Warning: this story contains discussion of suicide.

When Shylo Stevenson wants to know what's happening in his city of Regina, he fires up Facebook and heads over to what some might consider an unlikely source — Just Bins Waste Disposal, a local garbage company.

"It's amazing," he said, noting that the company posts scenes of accidents or fires very quickly, or even as they are unfolding.

Recently, he saw a fire at a local ice cream shop and stopped to check it out. He noticed someone was already filming the scene with a drone. By the time he got back to his office, Just Bins's social media pages had already posted about the fire.

"I don't think they have dedicated people assigned to this, but it's just anybody that catches footage and sends it in. It's just crazy how they get their footage," he said.

In the past, he'd tune into one of three channels to get his TV news. Now, he only get the news online, specifically through Just Bins's social media.

The company has been criticized for making jokes at the expense of people who are drunk, using drugs or appear to be homeless, and some who have made complaints to Just Bins and been interviewed by the CBC have described those posts and racist comments that follow as "punching down."

Stevenson works closely with vulnerable populations in the city and said he believes these posts bring attention to addictions as a pernicious problem in the city. But at the same time, posting faces of people who are experiencing hard times can feel exploitative, he said.

"They air their garbage," he said, noting social media has become a "free-for-all" for news since traditional media was banned from using certain social media platforms. "One man's garbage is another man's treasure, is how I guess the world will look at it."

As news organizations face stiff challenges all over the world, Canadian news companies received a huge blow last year. Facebook and Instagram's parent company, Meta, banned the sharing of stories from Canadian outlets in August 2023 in response to federal legislation. That ban remains in effect.

Just Bins has stepped into the resulting gap.

It began by posting sly jokes and memes poking fun at Regina and surrounding areas, but over time has increasingly shared crowdsourced security footage, photographs and videos of emergency or crime scenes.

Just Bins also has a drone of its own. Its footage has prompted some concern from Regina Police Service (RPS), which said flying drones over crime scenes and emergency operations is a "safety concern for our members and the public but also a privacy concern." Flying over such scenes flouts Transport Canada safety rules.

"We are currently reviewing this matter," RPS said in a statement.