In recent months, Australia has set an international precedent by requiring tech giants to compensate local news publishers for the content disseminated on their online platforms.
While Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault has long professed his desire to implement similar regulations, Australia has shown the world that it’s both possible and necessary to rein in big tech companies. Now, it’s time for Canada to act—and do so with other countries by its side.
In recent years, the Canadian media industry has been desecrated by the rise of online news aggregators such as Facebook and Google. According to a report from News Media Canada, those two companies alone collect 80 per cent of all digital advertising revenues in the country. In 2020, major Canadian media organizations including Global News, Torstar, and Postmedia laid off journalists and cited reduced ad revenue as one of the reasons.
The Liberals have attempted to address this problem through media subsidies and programs such as the Local Journalism Initiative, which “supports the creation of original civic journalism … across Canada.”
This is not enough. The government needs to follow Australia’s lead and pass legislation that will structure the Canadian media landscape so that domestic news publishers are fairly compensated for the use of their content.
In February, the Australian government passed the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code to support local journalism and regulate companies such as Google and Facebook. While Google reluctantly surrendered to the legislation by striking a deal with the Australian media conglomerate News Corp., Facebook responded to the regulations by instituting an Australia-wide blanket news ban on its platform.
After Facebook failed in this standoff with the Australian government and allowed news to return to timelines down under, nations such as Canada have been given the opportunity to form an internationally united front in the fight to regulate tech giants. The importance of a collaborative approach to regulating corporations such as Facebook and Google cannot be overstated.
If Canada tried to regulate Facebook on its own, it would risk engaging in a conflict similar to the one in Australia. Given its population, Canada remains a relatively small market in the global technology industry. In 2021, Canada is not among the 20 countries with the most Facebook users.
If a regulatory dispute emerged between Canada and Facebook or Google, the tech companies would hold the bargaining chips. By acting quickly and effectively in the same policy vein displayed in Australia, Canada can generate leverage and demonstrate its commitment to supporting domestic journalism.
This is not lost on Guilbeault. The heritage minister has vowed to make Canada the next country to announce news regulations on big tech corporations. He also recognizes the leverage Canada can obtain with a multilateral policy approach. Guilbeault has said and continues to say all the right things, but there comes a point when talk is cheap, and Canada has long passed it.
It should be noted the Australian legislation has some imperfections. The code only comes into effect when corporations such as Facebook and Google fail to reach a deal with local news publishers, which is a pretty broad definition.
In theory, Facebook could come to terms with the country’s largest media chain and leave smaller news publishers encumbered and unsupported. Fortunately, Guilbeault has repeatedly acknowledged the importance of including local news publishers in potential regulations.
Still, the heritage minister has made no concrete commitments to when regulations will be announced or what they might look like. In a February interview with CBC’s The House, Guilbeault said he “hopes” to table a bill later this spring. Perhaps this vague timeline will be met, but in order to capitalize on the momentum generated by Australia, the Canadian government needs to treat this issue with urgency.
Guilbeault and the Liberal government act as though Canada is one of the global leaders in the fight to regulate tech giants, yet Australia remains the only nation to take any substantive policy action. It is evident that Australia has laid out the blueprint, and now Canada needs to put its money where its mouth is.
Featured image from file.
