Global reaction to Google and Meta threat to take down news in Canada

Global reaction to Google and Meta threat to take down news in Canada

July 5, 2023

The following is a joint statement from the Danish Media Association, Digital Content Next, the Estonian Association of Newsmedia Enterprises, the European Newspaper Publishers’ Association, the European Publishers Council, the Finnish Media Federation, the German Newspaper Publishers and Digital Publishers Association, the Inter American Press Association, the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada, NDP Nieuwsmedia, the News/Media Alliance, News Media Canada, News Media Europe, News Media Finland, the Public Interest Publishers Alliance, the Swedish Media Publishers’ Association, the Swiss Media Association, and the UK News Media Association on Google and Meta’s threat to take down news in Canada after Canada’s parliament passed the Online News Act (C-18) in June.

While governments around the world are recognizing the immense importance of protecting high-quality journalism for future generations – trustworthy and reliable content that keeps our communities and lawmakers informed, accountable, engaged, and entertained – Google and Meta are fighting tooth and nail against efforts to ensure news publishers get paid for the content they invest considerable time and resources in to produce.

First in Europe and Australia, and now in Canada, these monopolists have threatened to pull news from their platforms and services in response to laws allowing news publishers to negotiate with them for fair compensation; publishers, many of which represent small local papers, who otherwise would not have any leverage against the dominant platforms.

In Europe, in some member states competition authorities stepped in. In Australia, the government stood firm and both companies eventually withdrew their irresponsible threats that would have caused incalculable damage to the Australian public. Only when sufficient political and regulatory pressure was applied to them, the platforms have started to negotiate deals in Europe, as well as with Australian publishers that have resulted in increased hiring of journalists and more revenues to publishers. In Canada, the law – the Online News Act – is new, but Google and Meta’s tactics are old. We call on both companies to act like socially responsible corporate citizens, stand down and accept that the world is changing, and recognize that the law has been passed through the democratic process and the platforms can no longer prosper by abusing their dominance in the market at the cost of everyone else.