By Mickey Djuric in Ottawa
A federal bill that will require Google and Meta to pay media outlets for news content that they share or otherwise repurpose on their platforms has become law.
The Senate passed the bill Thursday in a final vote and was given royal assent amid a standoff between the Liberal government and Silicon Valley tech giants.
Ottawa has said the law creates a level playing field between online advertising giants and the shrinking news industry. And Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez has promised to push back on what he describes as "threats" from Facebook and Google to remove journalism from their platforms.
Meta confirmed Thursday that it plans to comply with the bill by ending news availability on Facebook and Instagram for its Canadian users, as it had previously suggested.
Meta would not offer details about the timeline for that move, but said it will pull local news from its site before the Online News Act takes effect. The bill will come into force six months from Thursday.
"We have repeatedly shared that in order to comply with Bill C-18, which was passed today in Parliament, content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, will no longer be available to people accessing our platforms in Canada," said Lisa Laventure, head of communications for Meta in Canada.
Rodriguez had meetings with both Facebook and Google this week, but his department didn't disclose details about them.
Spokesperson Laura Scaffidi said the minister was set to have another meeting Thursday afternoon with Google, which has hinted that removing news links from its popular search engine is a possibility. The company didn't provide comment on the matter.
Banner image: THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Michel Euler
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 22, 2023.
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