Google and Meta executives push against Canada’s online news bill
The law would imply that the companies will have to negotiate commercial deals and pay Canadian news publishers for their content.
Company executives at Google and Meta announced they would withdraw access to news articles in Canada if a bill that would force internet companies to pay news publishers is passed. This law, in line with a global trend to make tech firms pay for news, would imply that the companies will have to negotiate commercial deals and pay Canadian news publishers for their content. Tech companies claim that news publishers actually profit from the traffic they receive from search engines and social media.
Rachel Curran, head of public policy for Meta in Canada, said Facebook feeds sent Canadian publishers more than 1.9 billion clicks in the 12 months ending April 2022, worth an estimated $230 million in free marketing. Richard Gingras, vice president of news, said that Google last year linked to Canadian news publishers more than 3.6 billion times, improving the companies’ revenues coming from ads and new subscriptions. Google has already tested blocking some Canadian users’ access to news this year as a potential response to the legislation.
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