Google and Meta warned that they might block news content

Google and Meta showed a red signal to the new bill in Canada and may stop the availability of news content in Canada. The Canadian government introduced a new bill in April last year, under the Ministry of Heritage Minister ‘Pablo Rodriguez’. This bill is known as the ‘Online News Act’ or ‘House of Common Bill C-18’. According to this bill, internet companies like Facebook parent Meta platform Inc. and Google parent Alphabet platform Inc. have to pay news publishers for their content. This is a part of the global trend of making tech companies pay for news.

Head of public policy of Meta, Rachel Curran said, “The legislation that forces us to pay for links or content which is not posted by us and also not the reason why such a large crowd use our platforms, will not work.” Thus platforms like Google and Meta have decided to restrict the news content in Canada. Tech firms like Google and Meta are doing absolutely great in the global market and, therefore, other media industries are facing loss. This initiative by the Canadian government is to recover the losses of the Canadian media industry. Industries in Canada have asked the government to make regulations in their favor. To oppose this, Google and Meta have warned that they might block news content.