Trudeau says other countries are quietly backing Canada in fight over Online News Act

 

Act would see tech giants pay media outlets for news content they share or repurpose on their platforms

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to Front Burner host Jayme Poisson 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says other countries are quietly taking Canada's side as giant tech companies push back against his government's Online News Act.

C-18, which passed the House of Commons in June, requires that tech giants Google and Meta pay media outlets for news content they share or otherwise repurpose on their platforms.

Meta already has pulled news and content from Canadian publishers and broadcasters from its platform in Canada in response to the law. Google has threatened to do the same.

Other governments looking at their own laws

A bill in California similar to the Online News Act could soon become law; Meta has threatened to remove news from its platforms in that state. The New Zealand government is also taking public input on its own bill.

Trudeau said other jurisdictions are watching how the Online News Act rolls out in Canada.

"They're [saying], 'You go Canada, you take this fight.' So we'll do it. We don't mind doing it because it's so important," he said.

Earlier this month, the government released draft regulations for C-18 and estimated that Google and Meta would have to pay a combined $234 million to media outlets in order to comply.

The government said companies fall under the act if they have a total global revenue of $1 billion or more in a calendar year, "operate in a search engine or social media market distributing and providing access to news content in Canada," and have 20 million or more average monthly unique Canadian visitors or average monthly active users.

As it stands, Google and Meta are the only companies that meet those criteria. Government officials have said Microsoft's Bing search engine is the next closest to falling under the act.

Following the release of the regulations, Meta said it wouldn't reverse its decision to block news content on its platforms.

A Google spokesperson told CBC News it is still reviewing the draft regulations but the company has significant concerns.