Meta to end availability of news in Canada permanently

meta says it will soon start blocking Canadians from news content on Facebook and Instagram it's in response to bill c18 which was recently passed it forces Tech Giants to pay media companies for the content they link to Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez told the cbc's Rosemary Barton that Canada is not the wild west and that Tech Giants need to pay their fair share to support Canadian journalism these people can come here and do whatever they want that doesn't work like that in Canada not in a democracy and I cannot accept that a company like meta comes here and threatens us and threatens a sovereign country and if we don't stand up for Kenyans who will Rachel Curran is the head of public policy for medic Canada Rachel Kern thanks for coming in thanks David great to be here so when we've had Minister Rodriguez on this show he says meta has his number they know how to reach him and he's willing to sit down and negotiate are you willing to sit down and negotiate with them so that you don't have to do this news ban so if that were possible sure it's just not possible the way the bill is drafted unfortunately we've had really constructive discussions with Heritage officials we've had really good discussions with The Minister's office but the way the bill is drafted doesn't allow for negotiations outside the framework of the legislation so there are no negotiations currently we are proceeding towards ending the availability of news permanently in Canada we wish we weren't here but we are here and there is really nothing at this point that's going to alter that trajectory well what makes negotiations so impossible because I know the bill has received Royal assent but the government talks about this regulatory phase that could take until the end of the year where they determine how exactly it applies why can't you find a solution in there so David What's Done by legislation cannot be undone by regulation that's the you know saying if you're if you're a student of political science or law you'll know that very well so the regulation making process can't alter the fund mental premise or the the sort of underlying structure of the bill and so there's nothing at this point that can address our our fundamental concerns with Bill which is that it requires us to compensate news Publishers for placing material on our platforms voluntarily because they get a tremendous amount of free marketing and distribution value from that so Minister Rodriguez says that this is a bully tactic by a big Tech Corporation with lots of money they point to the fact that you do this already in countries like Australia where you've cut deals where you pay what makes this so different so let me just say in Australia we are actually not designated under the legislation and the Australian bail is quite different it allows for negotiation of private deals outside the framework of the legislation now we chose to do that in that particular context when the government was able to offer us some Assurance about the amount of our liability the scope of what we would be liable for under that bill and so we have not yet been designated under the Australian legislation we signed a series of private deals in Australia that prevented us from being designated now we've done the same thing here in Canada David we've signed 18 deals with Publishers in Canada we want to support news we particularly want to support news in their transition to the new digital reality and so we proceeded with these deals in Canada on the assumption that our support for news would be you know a good indication that we were willing to do in Canada what we had done in Australia however the bill as it's drafted in Canada doesn't allow us to do that outside the framework of the legislation okay so what happens to those 18 deals you have various companies and Publishers who are obviously dependent on that income to some degree what happens to those under c18 do they end well look I can't comment on current commercial deals but we are taking a look at those and sir there is provision in those deals for them to be changed or altered if legislation moves forward that changes the regulatory landscape in Canada so we're looking at that currently and I'm not yet sure what the outcome will be but the reality is if we are ending the news ending the availability of news in Canada there probably isn't much of a future for those deals you know the the the fact that you were willing to sign these deals the fact that you're willing to do deals in other countries like Australia I mean it puts on the table that Facebook and meta is willing to compensate for this content in in some way I I mean and also the the tech companies have drastically changed the advertising Market which has created a real problem for publishers what are you prepared to do outside of CA team is there a negotiation you can have with the minister that outside of c18 is there a way around this legislation so that you don't ban these Publishers from your platform because we've had some of them on this week our last week and they said it was existential for some of the smaller digital Publishers and this could kill them yeah I wish there was David I wish there was a way that we could negotiate deals or come to some kind of compromise solution outside the framework of Bill c18 outside the framework of this legislation but there's really not the way the government has drafted it within six months at the absolute maximum we have got to self-declare as a designated news intermediary and at that point we are subject to the entire framework of the bill which requires us to engage in negotiations with Publishers across the country for an amount that right now is totally uncertain and completely uncapped we know the government is aiming to get approximately you know 75 to 100 million in dollars annually in Canada but that's you know at this point the amount is totally uncertain no business could operate that way no business will operate that way and so we have to comply with the bill by exiting the market for news availability in Canada what does that do to your platform Zone not having credible news sources on it you know there's disinformation social media and big Tech is often criticized for its role in that of legitimate information is gone this creates a huge canvas for disinformation and misinformation to fill in well let me challenge that a little bit we've got 24 million users in Canada they share things that entertain them they share updates on their daily lives information will still be available from government sources from non-governmental organizations from Community organizations all of that from Emergency Services all of that material will still be available on the platform we don't think that's bad information also we have the largest global fact-checking program in the world we have 90 independent fact checking agencies who are fact checking viral misinformation in 60 different languages and that fact checking work is going to continue in Canada as well right but we are going to potentially have a situation where a declining Canadian media industry loses a very important platform for it I mean how quickly are you going to have this ban implemented I know the regulatory phase for the government could take until the end of the year when do you start blocking CBC and everyone else from putting their information on your platform so we have said we're going to implement a permanent solution to end the availability of news in the coming weeks we're looking to the timeline in the bill to do that now the Senate inserted an amendment to the bill that required that it come into four snow later than six months from Royal ascent and so that's the timeline we're working with but look David we don't want to be in this position we don't want to be ending the availability of news in our Platforms in Canada this is not something we would have chosen to do had we been given the choice but the way that bill LLC 18 is drafted just exposes us to a liability that that's not workable for us so when the minister says this is a threat and a bully tactic and essentially a bluff and to give them a call and try to negotiate a solution is there any point in even having that conversation at this point look it's a business decision and we have been telegraphing to The Minister's office and to his officials for many many months now that we would make this decision if bill c-18 passed and received Royal assent which it has done now so our trajectory is set there is no way to negotiate out of the framework of this bill as we discussed earlier and so unfortunately we are going to have to end news availability for Canadians on our platforms and that's Again David it's not something we would have chosen to do we don't want to be here it just seems with the resources of the government of Canada is its disposal and with a giant company like meta there has to be a workable solution that doesn't see this happen I I it just seems it seems crazy to me that that you can't find a way forward between the two sides on this yeah look we've been talking to The Minister's office and to his officials for many months now like our like Google I think has said they have been proposing alternative reasonable solutions for many months now they've had no take up on that we have experienced the same thing I wish there was a solution you know if they're we told the government if this bill receives real assent our trajectory is set and at this point David I think the only way out of this bill is if it were to be amended or repealed now of course it's open to the government to do that they can do that but that requires taking any amendments through Parliament perhaps they'd be willing to do that in the fall we'll see Rachel Curran thanks for your time thanks David

Channel: CBC News

Views: 21,509

Keywords: Meta, Canada, Bill C-18, Social Media, News, CBC News

Id: xHztUdaPT0s

Length: 9min 23sec (563 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 27 2023