Canada decided to make Bill C-18 (Online News Act) into law in June. Now, the new law is taking a toll on Canada since news links in the country are getting blocked by Google and Meta on their platforms.
Canadian News Links Now Blocked by Meta, Google
This photograph taken on October 28, 2021, shows the META logo on a laptop screen in Moscow as Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg announced the parent company's name is being changed to "Meta" to represent a future beyond just its troubled social network.
According to Vox's latest report, Meta and Google started to block links from Canadian news outlets.
On July 3, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation faced a problem after its editor-in-chief, Brodie Fenlon, wasn't able to see his own publications on Instagram.
When he checked the Canadian news outlet's IG feed, he saw a message saying that the content is not accessible to Canadian users.
The Instagram message added that the news link blockage was implemented because of the Canadian government's decision to enact Bill C-18.
"It's an interesting experience to be editor in chief of a news organization and yet locked out of your own news account and prevented from accessing the great work your teams produce for the platform every day," said Fenlon.
Aside from CBC, Tyee-a smaller Canadian news agency-was also blocked by Meta. This was confirmed by Sara Krichel, the publication's social media manager.
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Will Americans Be Affected As Well?
Google shared its disappointment when Bill C-18 became law.
The tech firm said that the Online News Act "creates uncertainty for our products and exposes us to uncapped financial liability simply for facilitating Canadians' access to news from Canadian publishers."
But, what does it have to do with U.S.-based consumers? As of writing, the bipartisan bill called the "Journalism Competition and Preservation Act" is expected to make its way through Congress.
Just like the Online News Act, if this U.S. bill becomes a law, platforms with at least 50 million American users and worth at least $550 billion need to negotiate with news agencies.
Aside from JCPA, there's also another new tax bill in the United States. This is the Journalism Preservation Act of California.
If you want to learn more about why Americans should pay attention to the ongoing issue between Canada and tech firms, you can click this link.
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