The US giant’s decision marks a failure in negotiations with the federal government and adds to that of Meta, which announced last week that Facebook and Instagram will block access to Canadian media publications.
“We have made the difficult decision to remove links to Canadian news from our Search, News and Discover products as soon as the law takes effect,” said Kent Walker, head of global operations for Google and its parent company, Alphabet.
He also announced that Google “will no longer be able to operate News Showcase in Canada,” a kind of small showcase for the daily editorial output of local media.
Difficulties in accessing information.
The latter “will make it harder for Canadians to find information online, prevent journalists from reaching their audiences,” the leader said in a blog post.
The new legislation requires the digital giants to enter into fair trade agreements with Canadian media for posts shared on their platforms, or risk having to resort to binding arbitration.
For the Californian company, the government’s decision to “put a price on the bonds” creates “uncertainty for our products and exposes us to unlimited financial indebtedness.”
According to Ottawa, the new measure aims to support the information sector in Canada, where more than 450 media outlets have closed their doors since 2008. This bill is inspired by the one adopted in 2021 by Australia, the first of this guy in the world. The text was easily adopted after Facebook and Google reached agreements to avoid being subject to binding arbitration.
Faced with the same situation, the European Union introduced in 2019 a “neighboring right” that should allow the remuneration of press publishers for the content used by online platforms. After reluctantly, Google signed deals with French newspapers in November, a world first.
Source: BFM TV
