TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – Two major tech companies, Meta and Google, announced that Canadian users will have restricted access, if any at all, to online news articles in response to the Canadian Parliament’s passing of a new law that would require digital platforms that make news available to bargain deals to pay Canadian news publishers.
The Government of Canada says Bill C-18, otherwise known as The Online News Act, will go into effect no more than 180 days after the law was passed on June 22. The law makes clear that digital news intermediaries (online communication services that make pre-produced news content available to Canadians) must enter into deals to pay news outlets for provisioning their content onto the third-party platform. The legislation can be read in full at the bottom of this article.
Last Tuesday, Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, announced they’ve begun the process of ending news availability in Canada and all Canadians accessing will be subjected to the changes over the course of the next few weeks. Meta says this is the “only way they can comply” with the legislation.
“We believe the Online News Act misrepresents the relationship between platforms and news publishers,” said Head of Media Partnerships at Meta Canada, Marc Dinsdale. “The framework of the current legislation presumes that Meta unfairly benefits from its relationship with publishers, when in fact the reverse is true.”
Google executives followed behind Meta and responded to the passage of Bill C-18 by calling the decision unprecedented, saying that requiring companies to pay for showing links to news is the wrong approach to supporting journalism in Canada because it exposes their products to uncertainty and uncapped financial liability. Despite the government agreeing to discuss the possibility of addressing concerns raised by Google, officials with the company say the law passed without any of their suggestions being accepted and has provided uncertainty within the Canadian market.
They say in an effort to be transparent as early as possible, the company has informed the Government of Canada that when the law takes effect Canadians will no longer have access to news through any of their products.
“While we appreciate the Government’s acknowledgment that our concerns were reasonable and confirmation that the law will not apply until they adopt implementing regulations,” said Google’s President of Global Affairs Kent Walker. “They have not provided us with sufficient certainty that the regulatory process will be able to resolve structural issues with the legislation (such as forced payment for links and uncapped financial liability).”
As Canadians have begun noticing the effects of the decisions, some agencies in the nation have condemned Meta’s decision to stop news access and say it could lead to an increased spread of misinformation.
“Without access to real fact-based news created by real journalists, Facebook will become far less attractive to users and advertisers,” Paul Deegan, president of News Media Canada, said in a statement. “We expect more and more advertisers and their agencies will begin pulling advertising from the platform in response to this unilateral, undemocratic, and unreasonable move.”
And they did, with multiple companies halting advertising on Meta’s platforms, according to information provided by a Reuters Factbox. The Reuters fact-checking unit is joined with Facebook’s third-party fact-checking program and receives funding in exchange for assessments of the authenticity of the content.
The company Postmedia was one of the companies that joined in and paused advertising on Meta platforms on July 6 in response to Meta’s decision.
“There is no greater proof of the critical need for this law at this time than the actions taken upon its passing,” said Postmedia CEO Andrew MacLeod. “We hope to work together to ensure that all parties can do what the Online News Act allows for, to bargain fairly, level the playing field, and preserve journalism in Canada.”
Canadian Bill C-18_441 | The Online News Act by Blake Pierce on Scribd
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News in Canada blocked by tech giants response to law – WTVG
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