Jakarta –
Google is the latest tech giant to be hit by a new law in Canada that will force digital companies to compensate media outlets for content they share or reuse on its platforms.
The Online News Act, passed last week, aims to support Canada’s struggling news media sector. Over the past decade, many media companies have gone out of business because most users opted to read news for free through social media.
Under Canada’s new law, tech companies are required to enter into fair trade agreements with news organizations for links to news and information on their platforms or face binding arbitration.
Google refuses to pay compensation
Google released a statement expressing its view that the new law was “unenforceable.” Google said the Canadian government had provided no guarantees that “structural problems with the law” would be resolved upon its implementation.
In a blog post, Google said the new law would make it harder for Canadians to find news online and harder for journalists to reach their audiences. However, individuals in Canada will still be able to access news from Canadian websites by typing the web address of the respective outlet directly into a browser or through a dedicated application.
Google’s decision to remove Canadian news links comes after talks with the government to find a solution failed.
Meta, another tech giant, also announced last week that it would block Canadian news on Facebook and Instagram.
Google and Meta, which account for a large share of online advertising, have been accused of driving down revenue from traditional news media companies, while using media companies’ content for free.
Canada wants to protect traditional news media
“We have informed the (Canadian) government that we have made the difficult decision…to remove the links to Canadian news from our Search, News and Discover products and that we will no longer be able to operate Google News Showcase in Canada,” said said Google. .
Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, a former journalist, pointed out that the loss of advertising revenue currently draining from newsrooms in Canada is a serious problem, not only for the journalists affected, but for the whole country.
He stressed the need for well-paid journalists to maintain a strong culture, healthy society and healthy politics.
An October 2022 Canadian Parliamentary Budget Monitoring Report estimates that the new Online News Act will bring Canadian newspapers approximately C$249 million in revenue each year from digital platforms.
Canada’s new online news law is inspired by online media regulation in Australia, which became the first in the world to require Google and Meta to pay for news content on their platforms.
hp/as (afp, ap, rtr)
(ita/ita)
“Thinker. Hardcore web aficionado. Zombie evangelist. Pop culture trailblazer. Student. Passionate twitter maven.”
