(Ottawa) Minister of Canadian Heritage leaves door open to regulation of new social media platform Threads as part of bill requiring Google and Meta to compensate news media for news they share or reuse in another way on their platforms.
Asked Wednesday about the possibility of including Meta’s new social network in the Online News Act, known as Bill C-18, Pablo Rodriguez replied that “it will eventually be included in the regulations”.
“It could be included in the bill. We are studying the matter, he added. We don’t know yet, but it will be more specific when we get to regulations. »
The Threads microblogging platform has garnered at least 100 million users since its inception last Wednesday, after legislation targeting Meta, Facebook and Instagram companies, as well as Google’s search engine and information products, was passed. received royal assent on June 22.
Since then, the law has sparked a standoff between the digital giants and the federal government.
The two tech companies, which lobbied against the law, vowed to block access to Canadian news on their platforms, while Rodriguez refused to back down, demanding compensation for Canada’s journalism industry .
In his latest salvo, he withdrew the federal government’s $10 million in annual ad spending from Meta’s platforms last week.
The press and telecommunications companies Quebecor, Bell Media, Torstar, Cogeco and Postmedia Network Canada have done the same. The University of Montreal announced on Wednesday that it will “significantly reduce its advertising placements on social media platforms Facebook and Instagram”, “in solidarity with the media”.
Mr. Rodriguez spared Google the ad suspension as the tech giant has “been open to finding a solution,” the minister has previously said, adding that he “deeply believes” that Google’s concerns business would be resolved through regulation. However, the company has announced that it will also block Canadian news articles and reports from its platform.
“Google decided to stay at the table and continue to chat with us. Meta took an intimidating approach and decided not to argue with us anymore,” Rodriquez said.
“We have since met with Google on Friday…we are working on an update this week. »
Rodriguez declined to discuss specifics of the conversations he had with Google, but said they were “open and candid discussions.”
“I think they’re going in the right direction,” he said.
Google wouldn’t comment on its discussions with the minister, but referred The Canadian Press to a blog post, where its president of global affairs said, “We plan to participate in the regulatory process and will continue to be transparent with regulators.” Canadians and the news media as we move forward.”
“We hope the government will be able to chart a viable course for the future,” Kent Walker said.
Meta declined to comment.
His conversations with Google come as he released a document on Monday saying he was proposing a financial cap on how much Google and Facebook should pay in compensation to media companies, which would be based on a platform’s estimated Canadian revenue. , and which would be specific to each platform and its position in the information market.
The proposal reaffirms that non-monetary offers to news organizations, such as training, can be included in the grounds for exemption and seeks to clarify what constitutes a “significant part” of independent local news organizations, media outlets and official language minority community media outlets.
“I think we’ve demonstrated what we’ve been saying all along: a lot of the clarification that the digital giants are asking for is provided by regulation,” Rodriguez said.
While he did not go into specifics about the financial cap digital giants will have to pay or the number of organizations they will have to negotiate deals with, he stressed that the regulations will affect every province and territory, have a impact on English and French publications and ensure representation of Indigenous media of all sizes.
Radio-Canada/CBC, the country’s public broadcaster, could also receive money through the law, Rodriguez said, but that will depend on Google and Meta and the organizations they choose to strike deals with.
While those matters are still under consideration, Mr. Rodriguez said he remains open to meeting with Meta.
“We don’t want a confrontation. We were very disappointed by Meta’s attitude, which we believe is irresponsible, he said. We don’t act the same way, we tell them: come to the table. »
