Google Blocking Canadians From Accessing News Content ‘A Terrible Mistake,’ Trudeau Says

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to the media at Fort York Armoury in Toronto on Feb. 24, 2023. Chris Young/The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Google made “a terrible mistake” after the U.S. tech giant said earlier this week that it blocked access to some Canadian news content, which it described as a test run of a possible response to the Liberal government’s online bill.

“It really surprises me that Google has decided that they'd rather prevent Canadians from accessing news than actually paying journalists for the work they do,” Trudeau said on Feb. 24.

“I think that’s a terrible mistake. And I know Canadians expect journalists to be well paid for the work they do.”

Trudeau remarked on Google’s move without being asked about it during a press conference on the Russia-Ukraine war, saying that he “wanted to make mention of [another issue] that is bothering me.”

Google confirmed that it blocked access to online news for less than 4 percent of its Canadian users, saying that it was a temporary test in response to Bill C-18, the Liberal government’s Online News Act. The test will run for about five weeks and will affect all types of news content, including content created by Canadian broadcasters and newspapers, the company said. Some Android users using the Discover feature, which carries news and sports stories, may also be impacted.

“We’re briefly testing potential product responses to Bill C-18 that impact a very small percentage of Canadian users,” Google spokesperson Shay Purdy said in a written statement on Feb. 22, in response to inquires from The Canadian Press.

“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.”

Bill C-18, titled “An Act respecting online communications platforms that make news content available to persons in Canada,” seeks to regulate “digital news intermediaries,” such as Google and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, in order to “enhance fairness in the Canadian digital news marketplace and contribute to its sustainability.”

This means that those digital platforms will be compelled to negotiate deals to compensate Canadian media companies for displaying or providing links to their news content.

The bill, first introduced in 2022, has reached second reading in the Senate, where Google is expected to appear at the transport and communications committee once it begins its study of the bill.

The Google logo at the entrance to the Google offices in London on Jan. 18, 2019. Hannah McKay/Reuters

Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez also criticized Google after the company moved to block Canadians from accessing news content.

“It’s disappointing to hear that Google is trying to block access to news sites. Canadians won’t be intimidated. At the end of the day, all we’re asking the tech giants to do is compensate journalists when they use their work,” he wrote on Twitter on Feb. 23.

Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu, however, said she had warned the minister that the bill would backfire.

“I told you this would happen. Meta will be next. Withdraw Bill C-18,” she wrote on Twitter in response to Rodriguez’s tweet.

Gladu previously argued that Bill C-18 would give the federal regulators too much leeway in deciding what is and isn’t real journalism.

“We want to keep the internet free and we do not want the government choosing what needs to be done there,” she told CBC News last December. “To do that, the best thing to do is get rid of Bill C-18 and allow the tech giants to fund something that small media outlets could themselves divide.”

Noé Chartier and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.