In a significant turn of events, Google has reached an agreement with the Canadian government to pay Canadian publishers for their news content, defusing tensions that arose from the controversial law, C-18. The deal comes as a resolution to the global debate surrounding the compensation of news publishers by digital platforms, particularly in the context of small, independent outlets.
Under the terms of the agreement, Google will contribute $100 million CAD ($73.5 million US) annually to a fund dedicated to supporting news publishers. The funds will be distributed among publishers, with Google’s contributions indexed to inflation, according to statements from the Canadian government. Notably, the details of the agreement are yet to be fully disclosed, pending the formal publication of the law’s final regulations.
Instead of engaging in negotiations with individual publishers over payment, Google will have the option to collaborate with a single collective. This collective will distribute the contributions to all eligible news businesses based on the number of full-time equivalent journalists engaged by those businesses, as stated by Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge.
The functioning and governance of this collective remain unclear, and as of now, there has been no official response to requests for comment on this matter. The Canadian government has assured that the final regulations regarding the implementation of C-18 will be unveiled by December 19.
Google’s President of Global Affairs, Kent Walker, expressed satisfaction with the resolution, stating, “We are pleased that the Government of Canada has committed to addressing our core issues with Bill C-18.” He added, “While we work with the government through the exemption process based on the regulations that will be published shortly, we will continue sending valuable traffic to Canadian publishers.”
This agreement stands in contrast to Meta’s response to C-18, where the parent company of Instagram chose to pull news content from its platforms in Canada. Meta had announced this decision in June and began implementing the change in August. Google, at the time, had also threatened to remove links to Canadian news but opted for negotiations, leading to the current agreement.
Interestingly, Google’s financial contributions under this deal are 41% lower than the monetary threshold previously suggested by Canadian officials for Google to qualify for an exemption from C-18.
Addressing concerns about Meta potentially revisiting its stance, company spokesman Andy Stone stated, “Unlike search engines, we do not proactively pull news from the internet to place in our users’ feeds, and we have long been clear that the only way we can reasonably comply with the Online News Act is by ending news availability for people in Canada.”
This agreement between Google and the Canadian government may set a precedent for similar legislative proposals worldwide, shaping the direction of policies concerning digital platforms and news publishers. The impact of this deal on the broader global landscape remains uncertain, but its resolution may influence the ongoing debate on the role of tech giants in supporting or stifling news outlets.
(Source: BBC | CNN | The Guardian)
