The government this morning released the final Online News Act regulations, effectively gutting the law in order to convince Google to refrain from blocking news links in Canada and to fix some of the legislative mistakes that have been apparent from the start. While proponents of the law will point to the $100 million contribution from Google as evidence of success, privately most in the industry and government acknowledge the obvious: Bill C-18 was deeply flawed and a massive miscalculation that has created far more harm than good. Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge seemingly agrees as she was willing to make changes that were derided by the government throughout the legislative process. Indeed, by the time St-Onge took over the file that was a challenging salvage job, Meta’s $20 million in news deals were lost and blocked news links on Facebook and Instagram was a reality. The prospect of the same happening with Google was too much for the industry and the government since the lost deals would have been at least double that amount (many believe in the $40-50 million range) and lost news links in search would have been catastrophic.
Archive for December 15th, 2023
Law Bytes
Episode 215: Jan Grabowski on Wikipedia’s Antisemitism Problem
byMichael Geist
September 30, 2024
Michael Geist
September 23, 2024
Michael Geist
September 16, 2024
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Recent Posts
- Is Meta Offside the Online News Act? The CRTC Wants to Know.
- Reflecting on October 7th: The Antisemitism Red Alert Warning Won’t Stop Buzzing
- The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 215: Jan Grabowski on Wikipedia’s Antisemitism Problem
- The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 214: Erin Millar on Trust in Media and the Implementation of the Online News Act
- The Bill on Canada’s Digital Policy Comes Due: Blocked News Links, Cancelled Sponsorship, Legal Challenges, and Digital Ad Surcharges