Toronto
Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge says that while the Online News Act isn't perfect, the media landscape is changing too fast for the government to wait any longer.
"We need to put our foot in the door and start doing it," St-Onge said Friday while speaking at the MINDS international news agency conference in Toronto.
"Even though it’s not perfect, even though some are not pleased with what we’re doing, but this new challenge is coming so fast that we need to address it as quickly as possible."
St-Onge says that part of the challenge is that the government waited too long to regulate digital platforms, so it's starting with this law and can adapt it over time.
The act, meant to help a struggling news industry, will force tech companies to compensate news publishers for work that is shared or otherwise repurposed on their platforms
The act doesn't come into force until December, but Facebook and Instagram started removing news for Canadians this past summer in what St-Onge said was an intimidation tactic.
"They've used it elsewhere in the world. They are also sending you, and the entire world a message, that they will resist any type of regulation."
Speaking to the audience of news agencies from more than 20 countries, she encouraged other governments to push back.
"We encourage and stand with other countries who are thinking about taking actions. Don't be intimidated. It's our responsibility to protect press freedoms."
Facebook parent company Meta has maintained that the legislation is based on the false premise that Meta and others unfairly benefit from news content, and that the only way it can reasonably comply with the law is to end news availability in Canada.
Google has kept a more open dialogue with the government, and St-Onge said she had heard the company's concern about knowing how much they'll have to pay under the law.
The tech company said Friday that recently published draft regulations that outline how the legislation would be implemented fail to address its concerns.
Google said it believes that legislative changes to the bill are needed, and wouldn't say how it would like the law changed, but welcomed the idea of changes coming through the Liberals' fall economic statement or the next federal budget.
Google said unless its concerns with the bill are addressed, it will remove news links from its search engine by the end of the year.
St-Onge said the government won't be stopping at the news act in its efforts to rein in tech, with legislation also coming on artificial intelligence that will focus on making sure AI use respects peoples' privacy, and that content generated by the technology is clearly identified.
The law won't tackle issues around copywrite that AI raise, but St-Onge said she has no doubt that there will need to be regulation around it ahead.
"It is a first step. But our modern governments are entering a new world, just like we all are, so we have to adapt.”
Banner image: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 6, 2023
