Canada to stop ads on Facebook, but sees path to settle dispute
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Meta and Alphabet’s Google have said they will end news access on their platforms in Canada.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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OTTAWA – The Canadian government will stop buying ads on Facebook and Instagram amid a dispute over a new law on paying online news publishers
The Online News Act, or Bill C-18, was passed into law in June, triggering Meta and Alphabet’s Google to say they would end news access on their platforms in Canada.
The government is finalising rules that require the platforms to share some advertising revenue when the law is implemented by the end of this year.
“Canada is going to continue to stand firm and ensure that if social media platforms and Internet giants want to use media... they actually ensure that they’re paying their fair share for it,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in Monteregie, Quebec.
The government still sees a path forward to resolving the quarrel and is open to discussions with the platforms, Mr Rodriguez, who introduced the legislation, told reporters in Ottawa.
The legislation was drafted after calls from Canada’s media industry for tighter regulation of Internet giants to allow news businesses to recoup financial losses suffered in the years that Facebook and Google gained a greater share of the online advertising market.
Mr Rodriguez said that 80 per cent of all ad revenue in Canada, or almost C$10 billion (S$10.2 billion), in 2022 went to Google and Facebook, and the Liberal government wants the two platforms to contribute to domestic journalism.
The decision to suspend government ads will cost Facebook and Instagram about C$10 million a year, he said.
“(Facebook) refused to discuss and did not want to compensate the media accordingly and so, we’ve decided to suspend advertising,” Mr Rodriguez added, speaking alongside two of three Canadian opposition parties that also support the legislation.
Meta has previously said that news does not hold economic value for the company and that news organisations benefit from sharing their reports on Facebook.
“Unfortunately, the regulatory process is not equipped to make changes to the fundamental features of the legislation that have always been problematic,” a Meta spokesman said, adding that the company plans to end news availability in Canada “in the coming weeks”.
Mr Rodriguez sounded more optimistic about reaching a compromise with Google, saying the government is convinced that “what Google is asking at this moment can be done”.
Google, which had proposed amendments to the Act that were rejected, said last week that the government’s regulatory process is unlikely to resolve “structural issues with the legislation”.
The company did not comment on Wednesday.
The outcome of Canada’s tussle with the Internet giants can set the tone for other governments trying to regulate Internet companies.
If the companies fail to secure exemptions or get the rules changed in Canada, they may face a similar fate in the United States.
Democratic US Senator Elizabeth Warren, a leading progressive voice, on Wednesday expressed support for Canada, saying that its “leaders are right to stand firm against these tactics and push back against Big Tech’s freeloading off local news”.
Earlier on Wednesday, Canadian telecoms operator Quebecor and Cogeco, which runs radio stations in Quebec, also said they will stop advertising on Facebook and Instagram because of Meta’s opposition to the new law. REUTERS
