Meta and Google are both musing about cutting off links to Canadian news sites in response to the proposed shakedown, and it is making news providers dependent upon internet traffic nervous. In today’s media world, to lose the traffic provided by the major social media platforms is to vanish from the public eye.
At a recent news conference, Prime Minister Trudeau spilled the beans on what C-18 is really all about. It isn’t about providing equitable access to information or standing up for Canadian citizens. It is nothing more than a cash grab being foisted upon social media platforms, and Trudeau is using the politics of envy to try and justify it.
So what?
Many companies are profiting while local news outlets are having a hard time transitioning into the new, digital world. Shall we punish every profitable company by forcing them to hand money to media outlets? That is how ridiculous the premise of C-18 is as well as Trudeau’s trying to justify it by noting that social media entities are making profits. They already pay taxes on their profits. This move through Bill C-18 is little more than extortion, and the social media platforms are standing up for themselves as they should.
An analogy I heard describing Bill C-18 was that it is akin to charging paperboys for the right to deliver newspapers to people’s homes. The kids delivering the newspapers provide a service helping media outlets get their products to consumers. Of course, it would be idiotic to charge them for that. They would just stop delivering. In the case of Meta and Google, that’s what they are doing. They will just stop carrying links to news outlets if they are going to get gouged to do so. What benefit would they see in participating?
Modern media outlets need social media platforms to get their product to consumers. Social media platforms don’t need to link to media outlets to make revenue. They could block every single news outlet in Canada and still do just fine, as people use the platforms for everything from searching for trivia items to viewing cat videos.
What will the Trudeau government do if the social media platforms follow through and block media links? Will the government legislatively intervene and force private companies to carry links? Would the government form its own social media platform to try and compete as they try to do in media with the CBC? Those are of course absurd notions, but then again so is Bill C-18 so I wouldn’t put it past them.
Trudeau went further in saying, “The fact that these internet giants would rather cut off Canadians’ access to local news than pay their fair share is a real problem.”
When politicians start musing about a “fair share,” hold on to your wallets.
Social media giants won’t and can’t cut off access to local news outlets. They just won’t carry the links to those outlets on their privately owned platforms. They aren’t charities, nor should they be. The media outlets will still be there but they will be tougher to find.
While small local news outlets have suffered in the digital age, hundreds of new ones have emerged and are thriving. Their business models are integrated with social media platforms and if C-18 passes, those new outlets may be put out of business.
The irony of Bill C-18 is it will do the opposite of what the government is claiming. It will crush innovative, up-and-coming media outlets while subsidizing a small handful of media giants of the government’s choosing.
That irony and reality are why Trudeau can’t defend Bill-C18 with facts or lay out a rational case as to how that legislation will serve to provide citizens with better news access. Trudeau can only try to stoke the fires of envy and decry businesses as being greedy for daring to refuse to pay to provide a service.
Bill C-18 is a solution looking for a problem. The dispute it has created has nothing to do with free access to media and everything to do with controlling it. I’m confident that free, independent media will win in the end, but terrible damage will be done as it has to battle against government legislation to survive.
