Heritage Minister Rejects Senate Amendment to Bill C-18 That Aimed to Prevent Facebook From Blocking Canadian News

Minister Pablo Rodriguez rises during question period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on April 28, 2023. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez has rejected a Senate amendment to the Online News Act, Bill C-18, that aimed to prevent Facebook from blocking news for Canadian readers on its platform in reaction to the bill.

Speaking in the House of Commons on June 19, Rodriguez accepted most of the Senate’s proposed amendments to the bill, but rejected two on the grounds that they “undermine the objectives” of the legislation.

In total, the Senate proposed 12 amendments to Bill C-18 and the government accepted 10 of them.

Rodriguez said the government only disagreed with one of the amendments, but had to reject two because they were closely connected.

“The only one we cannot support is an amendment that would force negotiators to set boundaries on bargaining by setting a simple value for news content and limiting negotiation over other items of value,” he said.

“Currently, the legislation intentionally would not set boundaries on what parties can negotiate on. This would allow them to bargain over the elements outside the scope of news content if they want.”

Bill C-18 aims to regulate digital news intermediaries like Google and Meta, which owns Facebook, to require them to negotiate deals with Canadian news outlets that would then compensate those outlets for the news and information they produce that are shared on the tech giants’ platforms.

Both Google and Meta have already come under fire from Parliamentarians for running tests in preparation for the passage of Bill C-18 during which the tech giants block some news content on their platforms from Canadian users.

Some Senators viewed one of the amendments that Rodriguez rejected as a final effort at preventing tech giants from blocking news in Canada as a response to the bill.

Sen. Julie Miville-Dechêne, who proposed the amendment, said it was a “a pragmatic and reasonable” attempt at adding “clarity to the bill.”

“It was not in any way an amendment proposed by the platforms but it was to try to clarify some of the vagueness that has been talked about by Google,” Miville-Dechêne told the Globe and Mail.

Bill C-18 passed the House of Commons in December 2022 and will be sent back to the Senate now that Rodriguez has rejected some of its proposed amendments. From there, Senators can either propose more amendments or pass the bill.

Rodriguez told the House on June 19 that Canadians will be consulted on the implementation policies of the Online News Act as soon as it passes into law.