Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government are in a high-stakes showdown with Google and Meta, accusing them of unfairly profiting at the expense of Canadian news outlets and of using “bullying tactics” to intimidate officials.
TORONTO — When Google opened a new office in Kitchener, Ontario, in 2016, it welcomed a special guest.
At issue is Bill C-18, passed last month as Canada’s Online News Act, which aims to shore up a struggling media industry by requiring tech firms to compensate domestic news publishers for the content shared on their platforms.for users in Canada before the law goes into effect, and the company canceled a $4-million fellowship program for emerging journalists.
The companies’ “scorched earth” approach is an effort “to communicate to the rest of world that ‘if you touch this third rail —— this is what we’re going to,’” said Dwayne Winseck, a professor at Carleton University’s journalism and communications school in Ottawa. “This is a little warning shot.” The tech companies contend that they drive valuable traffic to news websites and that being able to link freely to content is a key part of an open internet. And yet news publishers around the world have been laboring to offset lost advertising dollars — and blame the tech giants’ dominance in the digital ad sector.
For now, though, Canadian news outlets are sharing guides on how to find their journalism if it’s blocked. And while many of the main news organizations back the law, some are lamenting that the government’s effort to bolster their industry could end up doing the opposite.
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