Culture Minister Pascale St-Onge hopes to reach an agreement with Google over the application of Bill C-18 to online news, despite criticism from the American giant.
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Under this law, which is set to come into effect on December 19, Meta and Google will have to pay approximately $230 million to the media sector in Canada to continue sharing their articles. In response, Meta blocked media content on Facebook, a step Google has not yet taken with its search engine.
“I remain confident that we will reach an agreement with Google. “The communication channels are open,” commented Minister St-Onge on Wednesday, taking stock of this issue.
This optimistic exit follows criticism from Google, which said after a month of consultation on C-18 that the law needed to be changed.
“Unfortunately, the proposed regulations do not adequately address C-18’s critical structural issues, which unfortunately were not resolved in the legislative process. We remain concerned that these fundamental issues cannot be resolved through regulation and that changes to the law may be necessary,” commented a company spokesperson.
However, Google, which has already threatened to block media content on its search engine if a deal is not reached, has assured that it will continue to work with the government, an approach the minister praised.
“From the beginning, Google took a completely different stance than Facebook, namely participating in the legislative process. They have sent us their comments on the regulations,” noted Ms. St-Onge.
If Meta and Google do not come to an agreement with the government, they can simply stop broadcasting media content without penalty.