Meta Platforms stated that it would block news content for Canadians on its platforms including Facebook and Instagram once the Online News Bill passes in its current form. Bill C-18 will force huge platforms to negotiate commercial deals and pay news publishers for their news content.
Removing News Content
In compliance with Canada's House of Commons Bill C-18 or the Online News Acts, Meta will be forced to remove its news content on its platforms once it passes. Reuters reported that Meta's Facebook and Instagram and Alphabet's Google are the main targets of Canada to pay news publishers for their content and negotiate commercial deals.
"A legislative framework that compels us to pay for links or content that we do not post, and which are not the reason the vast majority of people use our platforms, is neither sustainable nor workable," Meta Spokesperson Lisa Laventure stated regarding the suspension news access.
She added that there will be no problem with huge tech companies complying with this as the payment is neither sustainable nor workable for them. But Canada's news media industry argued that these regulations would not allow the companies to recover from the financial losses they suffered, especially since Meta and Google rely on advertising market shares.
Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez shared his disappointment in a statement towards Meta as the company resorts to threats on removing news content on the platform, instead of working with the Canadian government on the C-18 bill.
"All we're asking Facebook to do is negotiate fair deals with news outlets when they profit from their work. This is part of a disappointing trend this week that tech giants would rather pull news than pay their fair share," he stated.
Meta's Defense
As per Meta's released statement last October, the company believes that this bill misrepresents the relationship between platforms and news publishers, hence why they call on the government to rethink the bill's approach in order to create a more sustainable news industry in the long run.
While the legislation presumes that companies unfairly benefit from their relationship with different publishers, Meta only makes up less than 3% of posts with links to news articles. "We have repeatedly shared with the government that news content is not a draw for our users and is not a significant source of revenue for our company," Meta noted.
Other Platforms Affected
Last month, Google launched tests to block access to news content in Canada to comply with the bill. A spokesperson from Google stated that Bill C-18 is overly broad and they will be committed to blocking news content if the bill's approach would be unchanged. Rodriguez stated that Canadians will not be intimidated by these threats and will remain on their stand.
In 2021, Meta also similarly banned links of news articles to Australian users in compliance with the Australian law that would require companies to undergo negotiation with different news sites in the country to obtain licenses with their content. Rodriguez stated that Canada's Online News Bill was modeled after this.
Related Article : Meta Developing New, Decentralized Social App for Sharing Text Updates
