Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – As expected by the Indonesian government, the Government of Canada is strictly enforcing policies on tech giants such as Google and Facebook, in order to provide compensation to media companies whose news is delivered through these tech platforms.
This policy is called “Bill C-18”, similar to the “publishers’ rights” being discussed in Indonesia. The rule requires tech giants such as Google and Meta to compensate media companies that produce news content and distribute it through their platforms.
However, Google is trying to fight against Canadian government policy. Google’s move is to threaten to block content from media companies. This policy deeply disappointed the Canadian government.
“We are testing new potential in response to Bill C-18 rules that affect a small percentage of Canadian users,” Google spokesperson Shay Purdy was quoted by Canadian Press News as saying Thursday (23/ 2/2023).
Google’s blocking of news in Canada is still at the trial stage. All users, only 4% do not have access to news content through Google.
“We are very open about our position on the policy of Bill C-18. If it does not change, it could have an impact on our services that Canadians need on a daily basis,” he explained.
Blocking access to this information is not only applied to the Google Search search engine. Canadians who have been blocked are also unable to access news from the “Discovery” feature on Android devices,
All types of news content are affected by this blocking. From political news, technology, sports. The news access limitation trial will be conducted for the next 5 weeks.
The Canadian government has expressed disappointment with Google’s stance on tracking Facebook. Last year, Facebook also threatened to block news content from its platform because of Bill C-18 policies.
“This case [pemblokiran] not effective in Australia and Canada as well. We will not be intimidated. At the end of the day, we’re just asking the tech giants to pay the journalists who work so hard to create content,” spokeswoman Laura Scaffidi said.
The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, opens the voice. According to him, the decision to block Google was a “big mistake”, quoted by Reuters.
Trudeau said the blocking of Google left him speechless. In fact, it bothered him.
“I was very surprised that Google would rather block news content for Canadians than pay journalists for something they do,” he explains.
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