The Canadian government enshrined Bill C-18 into law on Thursday following prolonged push back from tech powerhouses Meta and Google.
The newly passed legislation aims to bolster the bargaining power of Canadian news outlets by urging multi-billion dollar tech giants to compensate news publishers for the use of their content. The bill will go into effect in six months.
Meta continues to hold firm against the proposal, warning it would ban news sharing on its platforms in Canada should the bill pass.
“We have repeatedly shared that in order to comply with Bill C-18…content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, will no longer be available to people accessing our platforms in Canada,” Head of Communications for Meta in Canada Lisa Laventure said in a statement.
Both companies have come out against the bill, long claiming they will be unwillfully pushed into making deals with news publishers, but have entered into negotiations with the Canadian government in a drawn out attempt to settle on favourable terms.
Though Google has not yet confirmed whether it will follow in Meta’s footsteps and ban Canadians from sharing news via its platform, Meta and Google have already conducted experimental news filtration tests on a select number of Canadians.
The newly established regulations will be made public and finalized in cooperation with participating parties before they come into effect. Nonetheless, Meta and Google are set to be the only two companies affected by the parameters of the law, which requires companies to meet certain criteria in order for it to apply.
In a speech to the Upper Chamber, Liberal government representative Quebec Sen. Marc Gold said, “Canadian news businesses are operating in a world where a handful of large players have an inordinate amount of power,” signalling his support for Bill C-18.
But Rachel Curran, Meta Canada’s head of public policy, told senators back in May that “Facebook Feed sent Canadian publishers more than 1.9 billion clicks in the last 12 months, free marketing worth more than $230 million in estimated value.”
Access to reliable, balanced and accurate reporting is a linchpin of democracy, and the bill aims to defend the integrity of Canadian journalism.
Postmedia Network Corp. has spoken out in favour of the government, commending its efforts to foster a fair marketplace, other supporters of the bill have said permitting tech conglomerates to share content generated by third party news publishers, big or small, without paying, diminishes said outlets’ ability to uphold their journalistic responsibility and tightens the stronghold companies like Meta and Google already have over the spread of information.
