JAKARTA- Google will pay US$75 million, equivalent to Rp.1.1 trillion, to media outlets in Canada as compensation for lost advertising revenue. This compensation fund is consistent with the Government of Canada’s agreement with Google.

Quoted by Republika.co.id and reported by AFP, the Canadian government and Google announced this historic agreement after six months of impasse. The agreement will come into force on Tuesday next week.

A Canadian federal official said this week that television and radio’s share was capped at 30 percent, while that of CBC/Radio-Canada (Canada’s public broadcaster) was capped at seven percent, leaving 63 percent to the written press.

The official said the main reason print media receives the majority of payments is because it relies heavily on online platforms to distribute its content.

The Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pascale St-Onge, declared that the written press is currently going through a crisis that affects journalism, which is the foundation of democracy. Many media outlets are experiencing financial difficulties and some have even recently laid off their employees.

The CBC said annual media remuneration, required by the Online News Act, would be distributed to media outlets based on the number of journalists they employ. The Online News Act aims to support Canada’s struggling news sector, which has seen a surge in advertising investment and also seen the closure of hundreds of publications over the past decade.

The law was to come into force on December 19. If this is the case, Google will remove links to news content in Canada from its domain.

Another tech giant, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, will also be affected by the new law. Meta still opposes the law on online information, which he describes as “fundamentally flawed”. Since August 1, Facebook and Instagram have blocked news content in Canada to avoid having to financially compensate media companies, AFP reported.***