The federal minister who sponsored the bill that led to Meta blocking links to Canadian news says he has no regrets over how he personally handled the issue.
“We did the right thing,” Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez told reporters during a press conference in Ottawa on August 9.
Mr. Rodriguez said the status quo is “not an option” since newsrooms are closing their doors and this is “hurting our democracy.”
“We’re just asking them to pay their fair share, not more than this, just their fair share,” he said.
Mr. Rodriguez, the former Heritage minister, was replaced by Pascale St-Onge during a major cabinet shuffle on July 26.
His Bill-C18, the Online News Act, was adopted in June and requires online platforms to pay Canadian publishers for the display of news links.
Meta has retaliated by blocking Canadians’ access to news on its platforms Facebook and Instagram. Google also said it wouldn’t comply, but Mr. Rodriguez said the company has been more open to discussions than Meta.
Mr. Rodriguez defended his bill by saying other jurisdictions such as Australia have passed similar legislation. Australia’s case differs in that it was able to strike deals with the tech companies.
Complaints
Media lobby groups and the CBC filed a complaint on Aug. 8 with the Competition Bureau to investigate Meta’s decision to block news in Canada. They called Meta’s conduct “anticompetitive” and “clearly designed to discipline Canadian news companies.”Meta has called the Online News Act “fundamentally flawed” and says it “ignores the realities of how our platforms work, the preferences of the people who use them, and the value we provide news publishers.”
The issue is also political, with Conservatives having opposed the legislation. They say Bill C-18 and C-11, which revamped the Broadcasting Act, are attempts by the Liberal government to control information.
Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre compared the fallout of Bill C-18 to George Orwell’s “1984” novel.
