Google agrees to pay Canadian newspapers

The Guardian reported that on November 29 (local time), the Canadian Government and Google reached an agreement to resolve disputes related to the Online News Act.

The deal will allow Canadian news media outlets to continue sharing their content on Google's platform, but the Alphabet-owned company will have to pay Canadian news outlets $100 million (about $73.6 million) a year.

Google headquarters in California, USA. (Photo: CNN)

“After weeks of productive discussions, I am pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with Google to implement Canada's Online News Act,” Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge said in a statement.

Kent Walker, president of global affairs at Alphabet, also issued a statement: “Following our discussions, we are pleased that the Government of Canada is committed to addressing our core concerns with Bill C-18. We will continue to send valuable traffic to Canadian publishers.”

The Online News Act, also known as Bill C-18, includes a provision that would require tech giants like Google and Meta to enter into agreements with Canadian news providers, paying them fees to have news content shared on their platforms.

The bill is being finalized by the Canadian Government and is expected to be enacted before the December 19 deadline.

In addition to Google, Meta also opposes the bill and has blocked Canadian news on its social media platforms Facebook and Instagram.

Ms. St-Onge said the settlement reached with Google shows the new law is effective and called on Meta to explain its decision to block news sharing in Canada.

Meta's decision remains unchanged, according to a company statement. "Unlike search engines, we do not actively scrape news from the internet to include in users' feeds, and we have long made it clear that the only way we can reasonably comply with the Online News Act is to stop providing news to people in Canada," a Meta spokesperson said.

Meta has made similar moves in the past. In 2021, Meta briefly blocked news from its platform in Australia after the country passed a law requiring tech companies to pay publishers for using their stories. The company later reached a settlement with Australian publishers.

Hoa Vu (Source: The Guardian)

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