Fri 23 June 2023:
Users of Facebook and Instagram in Canada will be unable to access Canadian news after the country passed legislation mandating the digital giants to pay for such content.
“Exciting news! (No pun intended),” Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez tweeted after the bill passed a final hurdle in the Senate on its way to becoming law.
He said Meta’s decision to block news content was regrettable, but vowed to “stand up for Canadians against tech giants”.
His office said officials had a meeting with Facebook and Google this week and looked forward to further discussions about the new law.
The Senate passed the bill Thursday in a final vote and was given royal assent amid a standoff between the Liberal government and Silicon Valley tech giants.
The new rule requires digital giants to enter into fair commercial deals with Canadian media outlets for news and information provided on their platforms, or risk binding arbitration.
It expands on Australia’s breakthrough New Media Bargaining Code, which aims to make Google and Meta pay for news content on their platforms.
Australia, too, had accused the two dominant online advertising corporations of draining money away from traditional news organizations while using their material for free.
Another critic of the Online News Act, Google, has previously stated that it is considering a similar approach.
The two Silicon Valley giants have pushed back against the bill, which aims to support a struggling Canadian news sector that has seen hundreds of publications closed in the last decade.
Meta confirmed Thursday that it plans to comply with the bill by ending news availability on Facebook and Instagram for its Canadian users, as it had previously suggested.
Meta would not offer details about the timeline for that move, but said it will pull local news from its site before the Online News Act takes effect. The bill will come into force six months from Thursday.
Google spokesperson Jenn Crider said it is “doing everything we can to avoid an outcome that no-one wants” and is seeking to work with the government “on a path forward”.
The company has proposed amendments to the bill, but Crider said on Thursday: “So far, none of our concerns have been addressed.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticized Meta last month after it tried to ban Canadian news information for some users.
Opposition to the bill, he said, was “flawed [and] dangerous to our democracy, to our economy”.
Google’s well-known search engine temporarily restricted Canadian users’ access to news in February.
News Media Canada, which advocates for the industry, welcomed the bill’s passing saying it will allow news businesses – large and small – to negotiate fair market arraignments for news content.
“Real journalism, created by real journalists, continues to be demanded by Canadians and is vital to our democracy, but it costs real money,” said Paul Deegan, the group’s president and CEO.
“Original, fact-based, fact-checked journalism from authoritative news brands matters, and publishers look forward to participating in the bargaining process in good faith.”
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
______________________________________________________________
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
