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With Bill C-18 about to go into effect, Canadians could soon see news being removed from their Facebook pages and Google searches
Posted on June 22, 2023 • Last updated 4 hours ago • 4 minutes read
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OTTAWA — After the Senate passed the Online News Act on Thursday, Meta confirmed it will remove news content from Facebook and Instagram for all Canadian users, but it remained unclear whether Google would follow suit for its platforms.
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Known as Bill C-18, the law would force Google and Facebook to share revenue with publishers for news appearing on their platforms. Removing messages entirely would exempt businesses from the legislation.
“Today we confirm that news availability on Facebook and Instagram will be discontinued for all users in Canada before the Online News Act (Bill C-18) goes into effect,” Facebook said in a blog post Thursday afternoon.
“We have repeatedly communicated that to comply with Bill C-18 passed in Parliament today, content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, will no longer be available to people accessing our platforms in Canada.”
Canadians could also see news content disappear from their Google searches if Google does the same. Culture Minister Pablo Rodriguez is holding last-minute talks with Google on Thursday afternoon, the minister’s office and a Google source confirmed.
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In an emailed statement, Rodriguez said: “Facebook is well aware that they have no obligations under the law at this time. Following royal approval of Bill C-18, the government will begin a regulatory and implementation process. If the government can’t represent Canadians against tech giants, who will?”
Rodriguez and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have both previously said that Google and Facebook’s statements that they would remove messages from their platforms if the bill goes into effect are threats that won’t work.
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Bill C-18 does not specifically name Google and Meta, but applies to companies that “make news content available” and have a “significant imbalance in bargaining power” with news companies. If Google and Meta stop making news content available, the bill would no longer apply to them — meaning they wouldn’t be required to share revenue.
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That possibility was cited as a consideration by Bell Media when the company laid off 1,300 employees last week, including cuts in news. Robert Malcolmson, Bell’s chief legal and regulatory officer, told The Canadian Press that the bill could fail if Google and Facebook block messages on their platforms and that the company cannot wait for a solution.
Google has also warned that it could cut or terminate existing contracts with Canadian news agencies in response to the bill. Through its Google News Showcase program, the company currently has deals with news publishers covering 150 outlets. This includes Postmedia, publisher of the National Post, which also supports the legislation. Google pays news outlets to license content for the program, but the financial terms of the deals with the news outlets have not been disclosed.
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Culture Minister Pablo Rodriguez. Bill C-18 could receive royal assent and become law as early as this week. Photo by Allen McInnis/MONTREAL GAZETTEGoogle said on Thursday that it hopes to no longer be able to retrieve messages. Spokesman Shay Purdy said Thursday the company was doing “everything we can to avoid an outcome that nobody wants.”
Purdy said Google had proposed changes to the bill to the Liberal government, but said “none of our concerns have been addressed.” The C-18 bill is on the verge of becoming law and remains unenforceable. We remain urgently committed to working with the government on another way forward.”
If companies remove messages from their platforms, it’s unclear what recourse the Liberal government would have. When asked about that possibility before a Senate committee earlier this month, Rodriguez said the government has “options,” such as removing state advertising from platforms, rolling out new programs, or increasing funding for other programs.
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He also warned that there would be “reputational damage” for the platforms if they withdrew news content.
The bill would force Google and Facebook to negotiate commercial revenue-sharing agreements with news publishers. One of Google’s sticking points with the legislation is that it doesn’t provide a clear path to exemption.
Bill C-18 was based on Australian legislation. Under this scheme, Google and Facebook entered into agreements with publishers that prevented the News Media Bargaining Code from going into effect, meaning that neither was actually designated as a digital platform subject to the code.
Canada’s legislation is based on the same idea. Companies that have entered into commercial agreements will apply to the CRTC to be exempted from the obligation to negotiate. If the deals meet the criteria set by the government (e.g. whether they offer reasonable compensation), the CRTC considers them exempt.
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But under Bill C-18, platforms are automatically subject to the Code before the exemption process begins. Google has previously called for “at least…a clear and achievable path to liberation.”
Proponents of the bill cheered the bill’s passage on Thursday.
Publishing group News Media Canada said the legislation “enables news companies large and small to come together to negotiate fair market deals for news content with dominant search and social media companies.”
The Broadcasting Union of Canada also said that “much-needed legislation will ensure our domestic news businesses, including those of our private broadcasters, have a framework for fair negotiation with online platforms about the value derived from their content.”
Marla Boltman, chief executive of the Friends advocacy group, said in an emailed statement that the group “wholeheartedly applauds Parliament for getting this challenging bill across the finish line, while also responding to threats from Google and… Facebook to block news in Canada is responding. “We hope these foreign tech giants will now abandon their intimidation tactics and show the Canadian democratic process the respect it deserves.”
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