EDITORIAL | Bill C-18 is Strangling Canadian Journalism

Photo Credit: Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via The Globe and Mail

As a reader of The Nest, you may have noticed that our Instagram account no longer shows any content. Nor, for that matter, does the account of any major Canadian news organization. This is because of legislation recently passed by Parliament.

On June 22, the Online News Act, or Bill C-18, was given royal assent in Canada. The legislation aims to financially rejuvenate what the Liberals have characterized as a faltering journalism industry. Brought forward by Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, architect of the recently enacted Online Streaming Act, or Bill C-11, the law requires social media companies to negotiate monetary agreements with news organizations that display media on their sites. It continues a pattern of attempting to regulate the web with what are at best heavy-handed measures, and at worst fundamental misunderstandings of how the Internet works.

Under the new law, companies such as Google and Meta are expected to compensate Canadian newspapers for displaying links to their content on social media platforms. The result would have been Google and Meta paying over $330 million to news publishers, according to estimates by the Parliamentary Budget Officer. The government has characterized the proposed payments from Meta and Google to news organizations as fair compensation for the news-related traffic that their social media sites receive due to posts from Canadian newspapers.

However, in response to Bill C-18, Meta has blocked all news content from Facebook and Instagram, accusing the Act of being based on the false pretense that they financially benefit from online news content. In actuality, the reverse is true — newspapers financially benefit from their links being posted on social media sites.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promptly denounced Meta’s decision to remove Canadian news from its platforms. “It is so inconceivable that a company like Facebook is choosing to put corporate profits ahead of ensuring that local news organizations can get up to date information to Canadians,” said Trudeau. “Facebook, if you’re going to be sharing [...] work done by Canadian journalists, [...] you have to make sure they’re compensated,” he said on Aug. 21.

This is a fundamental mischaracterization of the situation. The bill passed by Trudeau is ultimately what caused Meta’s response. Regardless of whether Canadian journalists deserve to be compensated for links to their work on social media, the Trudeau government’s attempt at legislation was a political miscalculation that has resulted in negative impacts for Canadians.

The Editorial Board recognizes the logic behind Meta’s decision to block Canadian news outlets from their platforms. From a business perspective, there is no reason for Meta to acquiesce to Canadian demands for news funding. They will have greater financial success in other markets that do not impose such penalties, as few other modern, free democracies have laws similar to Bill C-18. 

Moreover, it makes little sense for news organizations to be owed money for their presence on social media, when it is for the most part an aid to their business interests. 

“News outlets themselves post their content on their platforms, and benefit greatly from increased traffic to their websites as a result,” commented Senator Fabian Manning in a hearing of the Bill in June.

News organizations and social media have a symbiotic relationship: newspapers receive free advertising from links posted on social media, and social media companies have become one of the main sources for news consumption, generating more clicks and reaching wider audiences. 

Manning then raised another question: if supporters of the Bill believe that the presence of news links on Canadian social media is harming news outlets, then why is it a problem if Meta removes them? “How do you say on [the] one hand,” he inquired, “that they’re doing something wrong by allowing the news links to be carried, and on the other hand say they’re doing something wrong by not allowing them to be carried?”

Bill C-18 has spectacularly backfired. Meta and Google have essentially called the government’s bluff by banning news content from their websites. While it is difficult to see how the Liberals did not see this coming, evidently it was not the expected outcome. Canadian access to news has been reduced. The readership of many newspapers in Canada will likely decrease due to a lack of engagement on social media. The very organizations the government had promised to help will be harmed.

As indicated in the screenshot above, Meta has blocked The Nest’s Instagram account from being viewed by Canadian users

When Meta blocked The Nest’s Instagram account, we lost one of our most crucial platforms for communication to both our own reporters and the public. This has occurred despite the fact that The Nest is not eligible to be designated as a “news business” per the Online News Act. Although we do produce news content in Canada, we do not employ anyone, nor do we make any profit, as we are a high school club. Because of this, we would never be able to enter into a bargaining agreement with Meta or Google as Bill C-18 would require.

Although The Nest has been subjected to the Online News Act under false pretenses, the Editorial Board nonetheless opposes the legislation. Many Canadians, especially young people, receive their news solely from social media, and do not visit news sites themselves. As a student publication serving a primarily high school student-based audience, we have used our Instagram account as a means of communicating with our staff and the community. The shutdown of our Instagram account is a direct result of the Act, and as such, our editorial independence has been impeded upon and our ability to draw new viewers to our work has been reduced. We cannot overstate the importance of our online autonomy and the role it plays in our mission to amplify student voices.

Additionally, the upcoming removal of news links from Google’s search features will thus decrease easy access to information for Canadians. The removal of news content from social media sites directly results in a less informed Canadian populace. 

The Editorial Board calls upon Meta to improve their diagnostic process for accounts to be designated as “news businesses”. Additionally, we call upon Parliament to repeal Bill C-18 and attempt to reverse the adverse effects it has had on Canadian journalism.