Ottawa –
Canada’s cultural heritage minister has left open the possibility for Google and Meta to regulate the new social media platform Threads under a bill that would require publishers to pay for content they link to or reuse.
Asked on Wednesday whether he considered including Meta’s new social network in the online news law known as Bill C-18, Pablo Rodriguez said, “It will eventually be included in the regulation.” .
“It could come up in the bill, we’re looking at it,” he said.
“We don’t know yet, but it will become more accurate as regulation progresses.”
The text and image platform was born last Wednesday after a bill targeting meta-properties for Facebook, Instagram and Google’s search engine and news products received royal approval on June 22. Since then, it has acquired at least 100 million users.
The law has since sparked a retaliatory relationship between the digital giants and the federal government.
Two tech companies that lobbied against the bill promised to block access to news from Canadian publishers, but Rodriguez did not withdraw his compensation claims against the Canadian journalism industry.
In a recent barrage, he extorted $10 million in annual federal advertising dollars from Meta’s platform last week.
News and communications businesses Quebecole, Bell Media, Toaster Corporation, Kogeco and Postmedia Network Canada Corporation have also taken similar steps, as was the University of Montreal on Wednesday.
Rodriguez spared Google of such treatment despite promising to block content from Canadian publishers because the concern is that the government is drafting regulations that are set to go into full effect later this year. Because I believe that it can be dealt with by
“Google decided to stay at the table and continue arguing with us. Meta took a bullying approach and decided not to argue with us anymore,” Rodriguez said.
“Since then, I met with Google on Friday… we are working on an update this week.”
Rodriguez declined to discuss details of the conversation with Google, but said it was an “open and candid discussion.”
“I think they’re on the right track,” he said.
His conversations with Google came after he released a document on Monday that set a cap on the amount Google and Facebook would have to offer media companies in compensation, based on the platform’s estimated Canadian revenue. It did so when it released a document that it was proposing to make it company-specific. Platform and its position in the news market.
The proposal reaffirms that non-monetary offers, such as training, for the press may be included in the grounds for exemption, with independent local news outlets, indigenous news outlets, official language minorities We are working to clarify what constitutes a “substantial part”. community news outlets.
“I think we have demonstrated what we have been saying all along, that a lot of the clarity that[the digital giants]have asked for comes through regulation,” Rodriguez said.
He didn’t go into specifics about what the financial caps digital giants would have to pay or how many organizations would have to broker deals, but the regulation applies to all states and federal states. Influence the state, influence English and French publications, and involve indigenous media and news outlets of all sizes.
Rodriguez said the country’s public broadcaster, the CBC, could also gobble up some cash through the bill, but it would be up to Google and Meta and who they made deals with. rice field.
Although such issues have not yet been resolved, Rodriguez said he remains open to meeting with Mehta.
“We do not want confrontation.
“We don’t act the same. Everyone is telling us to take a seat at the table.”
This report by the Canadian Press Agency was first published on July 12, 2023.
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Meta funds a limited number of fellowships to support emerging journalists for the Canadian Press.
