Google is blocking news content from its Canadian feeds as a warning of what to expect under the country’s incoming online news bill.
If this sounds familiar, it’s a similar move to one Facebook pulled in Australia in 2021 in protest to our own media bargaining code.
The Canadian version, named Bill C-18, the Online News Act, requires the likes of Facebook and Google to negotiate deals with media companies in order to republish their content.
Google is taking a more measured approach than Facebook did here, blocking news for roughly 4 per cent of Canadian users.
“We’re briefly testing potential product responses to Bill C-18 that impact a very small percentage of Canadian users,” Google spokesman Shay Purdy told Canadian press, adding that it runs “thousands of [similar] tests each year.
“We’ve been fully transparent about our concern that C-18 is overly broad and, if unchanged, could impact products Canadians use and rely on every day.”.
Laura Scaffidi, spokeswoman for Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, said the move won’t work.
“This didn’t work in Australia, and it won’t work here because Canadians won’t be intimidated,” she said.
“At the end of the day, all we’re asking the tech giants to do is compensate journalists when they use their work.
“Canadians need to have access to quality, fact-based news at the local and national levels, and that’s why we introduced the Online News Act.
“Tech giants need to be more transparent and accountable to Canadians.”
