Google Reaches a Deal for Canadian Online News Act
Photo Credit: Pawel Czerwinski/Unsplash
In June 2023, Bill C-18 — known as the Online News Act — was passed, requiring large companies to compensate media organizations if they wanted to continue showing news content on their platforms. According to the federal government, this was done to address the “imbalance” between tech companies and Canadian media outlets, which would allow them to make “fair commercial deals” without the need for government intervention, as well as to support the news industry, which had been steadily declining since the internet emerged.
Currently, Google and Meta are the only two tech companies being considered by the Canadian government, but this may change if other search engines or social media gain attention. According to the regulations as of Dec. 15, platforms will fall under the Act if they have 20 million unique monthly users and an annual revenue of $1 billion or more.
In response to the implementation of the Act, both tech companies Google and Meta, the company behind Instagram and Facebook, stated that they would be blocking user access to Canadian news from their platforms. Soon after, Meta began implementing said changes throughout a couple of weeks. However, Google had spoken with the Canadian government in hopes of compromise. In Nov. 2023, Google reached a deal with the Canadian government, agreeing to continue allowing Canadian news content on its platform and to pay $100 million per year to news publishers.
"Many doubted that we would be successful, but I was confident we would find a way to address Google's concerns," Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge told reporters of CBC News.
The federal government seemed to soften its position at the prospect of losing Canadian news on the popular browser. Although earlier in 2023, the Canadian government had estimated Google’s compensation for news publishers to be $172 million CAD, Google estimated the value to be only $100 million CAD, which is what they are paying annually.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that the agreement was very good news.
"After months of holding strong, of demonstrating our commitment to local journalism, to strong independent journalists getting paid for their work [...] Google has agreed to properly support journalists, including local journalism," he told reporters at CBC News.
Meta’s negotiations with the Canadian government have not resumed. When inquired about this matter, St-Onge stated that it is up to Meta whether they want to make a deal with the government. However, according to CBC News, a Meta spokesperson told them that they do not plan to allow Canadian news on its platforms.
"Unlike search engines, we do not proactively pull news from the internet to place in our users' feeds and we have long been clear that the only way we can reasonably comply with the Online News Act is by ending news availability for people in Canada.”