Canada has reached a significant agreement with Google in regard to the Online News Act, allowing Canadian news to continue to be shared on the search engine.
“Following weeks of productive discussions, I am happy to announce that we have found a path forward with Google for the implementation of the Online News Act,” Minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge said in a statement on Wednesday.
As part of the agreement, Google has agreed to pay $100 million every year, indexed to inflation, in order to support news organizations across the country. This includes independent news and outlets from both Indigenous and official-language minority communities.
“Google will have the option to work with a single collective to distribute its contribution to all interested eligible news businesses based on the number of full-time equivalent journalists engaged by those businesses,” St-Onge’s statement explained.
“This will benefit the news sector and allow Google to continue to play an important role in giving Canadians access to reliable news content.”
READ MORE: 43% of Canadians support the government’s Online News Act: survey
The deal comes after the federal government had previously estimated that Google’s contributions should be around $172 million, while the web giant had put that number at $100 million.
In addition to making an annual $100 million contribution, Google also shared that it will continue to make programs like training, resources for business development and support for non-profit journalism projects available for news outlets in Canada.
“We are pleased that the Government of Canada has committed to addressing our core issues with Bill C-18, which included the need for a streamlined path to an exemption at a clear commitment threshold,” President of Global Affairs at Google and Alphabet Kent Walker, said in a statement.
“While we work with the government through the exemption process based on the regulations that will be published shortly, we will continue sending valuable traffic to Canadian publishers.”
BALL NOW IN META’S COURT
The deal is in response to Bill C-18, also known as the Online News Act, which requires tech companies to enter into agreements that compensate Canadian news outlets for content shared on their platforms. The bill was passed back in June.
READ MORE: Meta to end news access for all Canadians on Instagram, Facebook within weeks
As a result, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, began blocking news availability for Canadians in August. At the time, Meta said,” The legislation is based on the incorrect premise that Meta benefits unfairly from news content shared on our platforms, when the reverse is true.”
On Wednesday, St-Onge reported to media that talks between the feds and Meta have not resumed, adding that the ball is now in Meta’s court as the deal with Google shows that new legislation “works.”
“Now it’s on Facebook to explain why they’re leaving their platform to disinformation and misinformation instead of sustaining our news system,” she said.
Meta has blocked Canadians from viewing news content on its platforms for the last few months.
However, CTV reports that Meta told them in a statement that the only way Meta could comply with the Online News Act is by scrapping news availability in Canada.
“Unlike search engines, we do not proactively pull news from the internet to place in our users’ feeds and we have long been clear that the only way we can reasonably comply with the Online News Act is by ending news availability for people in Canada,” Meta said in a statement to CTV.
Canadian Heritage plans to share more information about the final regulations regarding the Online News Act following approval by the Treasury Board of Canada and before it comes into effect on December 19, 2023.
CANADIANS REACT TO GOOGLE NEWS DEAL
Online, Canadians are reacting to the update. Many are happy to see progress being made with Google.
“This was a fantastic call on Google’s bluff. Well done!” One X user posted.
“Look at that – a govt standing ground against big tech to make sure our news stays ours. Well done.”
Meanwhile, others feel that the deal actually falls short.
“This “deal” is what google was asking for over a year ago. The gov caved.”
“Too little too late and no deal with meta. Another liberal failure.”
