Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., announced on Wednesday that it is implementing tests that may restrict access to news material for certain Canadian users as a potential countermeasure to the government’s internet news law.
The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau unveiled House of Commons Bill C-18, the “Online News Act,” in April. This legislation outlined regulations that would compel Google and Facebook to enter into business agreements and compensate news publishers for their material.
In an email statement to Reuters, a Google spokesperson stated, “We’re briefly testing potential product responses to Bill C-18 that impact a very small percentage of Canadian users. We run thousands of tests each year to assess any potential changes to Search.”
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As it considers potential responses to the bill, the company said on Wednesday that it is momentarily restricting access to news material for less than 4% of its Canadian users. The update affects both its widely used search engine and Android’s Discover tool, which offers news and sports content.
The test, which will last for approximately five weeks, has an impact on all forms of news content, the company said. The tech giant acknowledged that the time-limited tests “limit the visibility of Canadian and international news to varying degrees”.
Canadians won’t be frightened, according to a spokesperson for Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez, who also criticized Google for copying Meta’s strategy. She stated, “Canadians need to have access to quality, fact-based news at the local and national levels, and that’s why we introduced the Online News Act.
Tech giants need to be more transparent and accountable to Canadians.” Due to worries about laws that would require digital platforms to compensate news publishers, Facebook issued a warning last year that it might restrict the sharing of news material on its network in Canada.
A government report claimed that a similar law in Australia, which went into force in March 2021 after negotiations with major tech companies resulted in a brief suspension of Facebook news feeds there, has largely succeeded. The Canadian news media sector has fought Facebook and requested more control of tech firms from the government in order to make up for the financial losses the sector has endured as a result of Facebook and Google’s steady increase in market share of ads over the years. Since 2008, more than 450 Canadian news organizations have shut down, with 64 of those happening in the previous two years.
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Google voiced concerns about the proposed law to a House of Commons committee, saying that it would favor big publishers over smaller outlets, would not require publishers to follow fundamental journalistic standards, and could lead to the spread of “cheap, low quality, clickbait content” rather than public interest journalism.
The corporation has stated that it would prefer to contribute to a fund that would compensate news publishers indirectly, comparable to the Canada Media Fund. The bill was approved by the House of Commons in December and will soon be reviewed by the Senate.
I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.