iTWire - Google to drop Canadian news links once online law is implemented
source link: https://itwire.com/government-tech-news/technology-regulation/google-to-drop-canadian-news-links-once-online-law-is-implemented.html
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Friday, 30 June 2023 08:17
Google to drop Canadian news links once online law is implemented Featured
By Sam Varghese
Google has issued a warning to the Canadian Government, saying it would "remove links to Canadian news from our Search, News and Discover products in Canada, and that C-18 will also make it untenable for us to continue offering our Google News Showcase product in Canada".
Kent Walker, the president of Global Affairs for both Google and its parent firm Alphabet, said in a blog post on Thursday: "Bill C-18 has become law and remains unworkable. The government has not given us reason to believe that the regulatory process will be able to resolve structural issues with the legislation."
Canada's Online News Act, also known as C-18, was approved by the Senate, the upper chamber of the Canadian parliament, on Thursday. It was later passed by the lower chamber.
That day, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, said: "Today, we are confirming that news availability will be ended on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada prior to the Online News Act taking effect."
At that time, Google spokesperson Jenn Crider told iTWire in response to a query: "We’re doing everything we can to avoid an outcome that no-one wants."
Walker said: "We’re disappointed it has come to this. We don’t take this decision or its impacts lightly and believe it’s important to be transparent with Canadian publishers and our users as early as possible."
He said Google already paid to support Canadian journalism through its programs and partnerships – and the company had been clear it was prepared to do more.
"As part of our Google News Showcase program, we have negotiated agreements covering over 150 news publications across Canada. Last year alone, we linked to Canadian news publications more than 3.6 billion times — at no charge — helping publishers make money through ads and new subscriptions.
"This referral traffic from links has been valued at C$250 million (A$285 million) annually. We’re willing to do more; we just can’t do it in a way that breaks the way that the Web and search engines are designed to work, and that creates untenable product and financial uncertainty."
When the Australian Government tried to push through its News Media Bargaining Code in 2021, digital platforms, chiefly Facebook and Google, lined up in opposition.
The code was derived from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's Digital Platforms Inquiry report which was handed to the government in June 2019.
Negotiations between digital platforms and news organisations went on for a while, with the provisions for the code being passed into law in February 2021.
But there was plenty of resistance from the digital platforms and though Google took a more low-key stance, Facebook upped the ante and blocked the ingress of news content into Australia.
The government hurried to placate Facebook and made numerous changes to the legislation after which the social media company reversed its block on content.
Walker added that just as C-18 was approaching final passage and royal assent, the Canadian Government had said it would discuss the possibility of addressing some of the most critical issues.
"In that discussion, we asked for clarity on financial expectations platforms face for simply linking to news, as well as a specific, viable path towards exemption based on our programs to support news and our commercial agreements with publishers.
"While we appreciate the government’s acknowledgement that our concerns were reasonable and confirmation that the law will not apply until they adopt implementing regulations, they have not provided us with sufficient certainty that the regulatory process will be able to resolve structural issues with the legislation (such as forced payment for links and uncapped financial liability)."
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