The Topline
- On August 5, Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “looking for all avenues” to expand local news access, after being asked if he would repeal the Online News Act
- The Act, a.k.a. Bill C-18, forces Big Tech companies to compensate Canadian news outlets for use of their content.
- Meta blocked Canadian news content to Canadian users, which has severely impacted many publishers
"Predicated on a lie"
Bill C-18 assumes that platforms exploit journalism without compensating it. Most of the time, however, publishers and reporters voluntarily post content to these platforms to drive traffic and ad revenue. For many, it became fundamental to their business model.
Meta in particular doesn’t steal content, it amplifies it. When the company responded by removing news links to Canadian content in August 2023, it revealed just how little leverage Canadian publishers may actually have.
“The law is predicated on a lie,” said Jen Gerson, co-founder of The Line newsletter, in her testimony before the House of Commons arguing against the bill.
“We publishers are the ones who benefit when a user posts a link to our content on Facebook, Twitter and the like. This free distribution drives traffic to our websites, which we can then try to monetize through subscriptions and advertising.”
DEEPER DIVE
The Act mostly benefits larger media companies like Postmedia and Torstar, who already dominate government subsidy programs. Smaller, independent, and digital-native outlets have been largely excluded or sidelined in the bargaining process with Meta and Google.
Critics warn that the bill hardwires an outdated media economy – driven by clicks and funded primarily through online advertising – that should be evolving rather than subsidized. Evolution is essential to Canadian media’s survival.
Critics of Bill C-18, including Ariel Katz and Michael Geist , have argued the law creates a cartel-like dynamic, allowing publishers to collectively bargain with tech platforms under CRTC supervision. They argue that, when media outlets become financially reliant on government-mandated deals, it creates a perception, and potential risk, of co-opted journalism.
The result is a media environment vulnerable to government and tech companies influencing – directly or indirectly – what gets published and where. When Meta blocked all Canadian news content, it impacted the ability for people to receive emergency information during the 2023 wildfire season in B.C. and the Northwest Territories.
It protects Canadian journalism
Over 400 news outlets in Canada have shut down since 2008 . A major factor in those closures has been platforms like Google and Meta profiting from newsrooms, without any adequate compensation. Canadian publishers have watched advertising revenue shift from their newsrooms to those same platforms.
Bill C-18 was intended to restore balance in a lopsided digital economy by forcing tech companies to negotiate with and compensate news outlets, in an effort. In the process this could help preserve independent Canadian news.
The industry risks extinction without intervention, especially in more rural areas. The negotiations between Big Tech and Canadian publishers are meant to help stabilize newsrooms and allow them to invest in local reporting.
DEEPER DIVE
Google reached a deal with the federal government that would see the tech giant paying out $100 million annually to Canadian publishers – money that started flowing through over 100 different media organizations earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Facebook and Instagram blocked news in Canada, which in some ways proves the need for something like Bill C-18. If Meta, an American company, can unilaterally erase vital news during, say, wildfire season or during elections, it exposes the fragility of the Canadian news environment.
“The future of journalism cannot be left to the whims of platforms and the surveillance advertising industry,” wrote Sophia Crabbe-Field, lead author of Canada’s New Bargaining Code, a report done through McGill University’s Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy.
Google’s annual C$100 million deal hinges directly on the continued existence of the Online News Act and repealing the law could potentially lead to the previous, unbalanced relationship between Big Tech and Canadian publishers.
Keeping the law and expanding the legislation to account for generative AI models is the only way to reclaim a healthy Canadian news environment – and ultimately, a healthy democracy free of foreign, technocratic influence.
