Ottawa, Ontario — Canada’s Senate passed a bill on Thursday that would require Google and Meta to pay media outlets for news content they share or otherwise reuse on their platforms.
The bill, which is about to become law, was passed amid a standoff between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government and Silicon Valley tech giants.
Ottawa has said the legislation creates a level playing field between the online advertising giants and the shrinking news industry. And Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez has pledged to back what he described as “threats” from Facebook and Google to remove journalism from their platforms.
Meta confirmed Thursday that it plans to comply with the bill by eliminating news availability on Facebook and Instagram for its Canadian users, as it previously suggested. Meta would not give details about the timeline of that move, but said it would remove local news from its site before the Online News Act goes into effect. The bill will come into force six months after receiving royal assent.
Meta said, “We have repeatedly shared that in order to comply with Bill C-18, which was passed in Parliament today, content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, is now available to people accessing our platforms in Canada. will not be available for Spokesman Scott Reid.
Legacy media and broadcasters have praised the bill, which promises to “enhance fairness” in the digital news market and help bring more funding to shrinking newsrooms. In the past, tech giants including Meta and Google have been blamed for disrupting and dominating the advertising industry, leaving smaller, traditional players behind.
Meta, based in Menlo Park, California, has taken similar steps before. In 2021, it briefly blocked news from its platform in Australia after the country passed legislation that would force tech companies to pay publishers to use their news stories. It later made deals with Australian publishers.
The minister’s spokeswoman, Laura Scaffidi, said Rodriguez was scheduled to have a meeting with Google on Thursday afternoon, indicating the possibility of removing news links from its popular search engine. The company did not comment on the matter.
Meta is already undergoing a test that blocks news for up to five percent of its Canadian users, and Google ran a similar test earlier this year.
The Online News Act requires both companies to enter into agreements with news publishers to pay them for news content that appears on their sites if it helps the tech giants earn money.
“The tech giants have no obligations under the Act immediately after Bill C-18 was passed. As part of this process, all details will be made public before any tech giant is designated under the Act,” Scafidi said.
