Government Tables Bill to Make Big Tech Pay for Canadian News

Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez speaks about the government’s plans to amend the Broadcast Act during a news conference in Ottawa on Feb. 2, 2022. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

The Liberal government has tabled a bill that will require online platforms to strike revenue deals with news organizations for displaying their content and allowing it to be accessed and shared on those platforms.

“As you guys know, the news sector in Canada is in crisis and this contributes to the heightened public mistrust and the rise of harmful disinformation in our society,” Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said while announcing Bill C-18 in a press conference in Ottawa on April 5.

Rodriguez said news organizations are disappearing in a changing information landscape where big tech platforms are collecting the lion’s share of ad revenues.

“In 2020, online advertising revenues in Canada were close to $10 billion, with two dominant digital platforms taking over 80 percent of those revenues. That’s an incredible chunk of power in the market,” Rodriguez said in reference to the market share of Google and Facebook.

Rodriguez added that as news is being shared more widely online, journalists and newsrooms are not earning their fair share of online advertising revenues.

If the law is passed, news organizations deemed eligible by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) will be allowed to bargain with online platforms that represent a “significant bargaining imbalance with news media.” These include Google and Facebook but not Apple News or platforms covered by other legislation, such as YouTube.

The big tech platforms will have about six months to strike revenue deals with news organizations based on a list of six criteria.

Among the criteria listed in a Heritage Canada briefing document, online platforms are required to “not allow corporate influence to undermine the freedom of expression and journalistic independence enjoyed by news outlets.” Online platforms must also “involve a range of news businesses reflecting Canada’s diversity of languages, racialized groups, Indigenous communities, and local news and business models.”

When asked during the press conference whether some news outlets could be left out of deals with the digital giants, Rodriguez admitted that may indeed be the case but said “it’s almost impossible” as the bill was crafted in a way as to include as many entities as possible.

Eligible news organizations are defined as those that regularly employ two or more journalists in Canada, operate in Canada, and produce targeted news content. Those with the “qualified Canadian journalism organization” designation under the Income Tax Act, for example, would be eligible. The briefing document says an eligible organization must also be one that’s “not significantly engaged in producing content that promotes its interests or reports on the activities of an organization.”

News organizations will be able to negotiate, on their own or collectively, with the digital platforms. If the platforms make deals that as a whole meet the six criteria, they will be exempt from mandatory arbitration via the CRTC regulator.

Other Objectives

While presented as a means to help news organizations generate more revenues, the Heritage briefing document mentions other objectives, such as to “counter the rise of disinformation by supporting fact-based journalism” and to “uphold press independence from interference by Government or private entities.”

Ottawa University law professor Michael Geist raised doubts about the claim of increased independence in an article published on his website on April 5.

Geist, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, says the bill is the fruit of lobbying from the largest players in the news media industry, some of which he says abandoned press independence in the process of lobbying efforts.

“For example, I know of cases where opinion pieces have been spiked by mainstream media outlets because they criticized the previous Heritage Minister at a time when he was being actively lobbied on a potential media bill,” he wrote.

He also says the bill increases dependence on big tech instead of creating alternatives and fostering innovation, among several other concerns.

Three Online Bills

Bill C-18, the Online News Act, is the second of three legislative pieces the Liberal government is introducing to increase governmental oversight and steering of online content and activities.

Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, completed a first reading in the House on Feb. 2. The bill seeks to give the CRTC the mandate to regulate the internet and impose on it a progressive framework, which some critics say will amount to censorship.

However, CRTC chair Ian Scott said that “users of online and social media services expect freedom of expression, and they will continue to enjoy this under the new Broadcasting Act,” speaking at Ryerson University on April 1.

For its third bill seeking to curtail “online harms” by regulating speech, on March 30 the government announced the creation of an expert panel that will advise on how to craft the legislation. An earlier Epoch Times assessment found that many of the panel members share the government’s view on some contentious issues, and some work for organizations financed by Ottawa.