Both Meta and Google have said they would remove Canadian news from their platforms to avoid having to compensate the news outlets.
Both Meta and Google have said they would remove Canadian news from their platforms to avoid having to compensate the news outlets.
I don’t think Meta or Google are great companies but this is just greed by the news companies. They obviously benefit from these incoming links or they would just disable indexing via robots.txt. If they really think they should get more compensation they could have negotiated with Meta and Google directly. But they know that their requests are dumb so they instead lobbied the government for special rules.
Of course this is the exact same thing that happened in Australia. The news companies need Google and Meta way more than G&M need them. So they just blocked these links and the news companies cried uncle.
The news companies tried to sign deals with Google and Meta. Google and Meta yawned and ignored them. The Australian government brought in their laws. Google and Meta tried blockading. The Australian government yawned and ignored them. Google and Meta now have signed remuneration agreements in place with over 200 news outlets in Australia. Australia still has its News Media Bargaining Code in place in law.
I hope Canada cries uncle the way Australia did!
Yes, the blocking in Australia was part of the negotiation as it is here in Canada. In the end the Australian news companies did have to negotiate, they did not get to demand whatever income they want like many people here seem to suggest and want.
Google & Meta send their money to the shareholders in NYC that own 85% of Australian media, not to the journalists in Australia. Simlilarly Bill C-18 will be a windfall for a little NJ company.
You need to explain that.