Canada’s Online News Act (Bill C-18) prompted Google to follow Facebook’s lead, threatening to block news access unless legislation requiring tech companies to compensate publishers for linked content was amended. Initial tests in February sawGoogle temporarily limit news resultsfor about 4% of randomly selected Canadian users. By June, Google had announced plans toremove links to Canadian news in Search, News, and Discoverafter Bill C-18 was passed. However, in a surprising turnaround, Google has now struck a deal with the Canadian government, agreeing to pay publishers for displaying links in its search engine.
The agreement will ensure Canadian users continue to have access to their local news, marking the first hint of a truce between Canada and the Mountain View giant. Canada’s Heritage Minister, Pascale St-Onge, announced on X (formerly Twitter) that after some positive talks, Google is onboard with chipping in for the Online News Act.
As the legislation takes effect in mid-December, Google and the Canadian government’s deal aims to contribute funds to support the country’s news industry. According to theCBC, Google has agreed to pay local news publishers around CA$100 million annually. That said, this figure falls short of the government’s initial estimate of CA$172 million.
Google had initially objected to directly negotiating with individual media organizations, fearing that this could lead to costly arbitration proceedings. Instead, the company will negotiate with a representative group of media organizations, the CBC reports.
“We thank the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pascale St-Onge, for acknowledging our concerns and deeply engaging in a series of productive meetings about how they might be addressed,” Kent Walker, Google and Alphabet’s president of global affairs, wrote in ablog post.
Walker added that after some serious discussion, Canada has vowed to tackle Google’s main gripes with Bill C-18. This includes establishing a clear exemption threshold and streamlining the exemption process. Alphabet’s general counsel also emphasized that Google’s not cutting off Canadian publishers; it’ll keep the traffic flowing while working with the government to figure out the exemption process based on the rules.
Meanwhile, Meta hastaken a different approach. Since June, it has blocked Canadian news links on Facebook and Instagram. The company has not resumed negotiations with the government regarding Bill C-18, according to the CBC.
For now, the Online News Act specifically targets tech giants Google and Meta, leaving smaller platforms unaffected. This is because the law’s scope is limited to tech companies with over 20 million unique monthly users and annual revenues of CAD1 billion.
