Google announced on Thursday that it would block all links to Canadian news articles. This is in response to a new law in Canada that mandates tech companies to compensate publishers for content.
According to NPR, Google executive Kent Walker stated in a blog post, “We have now informed the government that when the law takes effect, we, unfortunately, will have to remove links to Canadian news from our Search, News, and Discover products in Canada.”
This decision by Google comes shortly after Meta made a similar announcement, pledging to blackout Canadian publishers on Facebook and Instagram and criticizing the law as “fundamentally flawed.”
The clash between the tech giants and the Canadian government centers around the legislation that would require them to negotiate compensation agreements with news organizations for sharing links to news stories.
Although the Online News Act was passed last week, it may take several months to be enforced. Once in effect, both Google and Meta have confirmed that they will begin removing news articles from Canadian news outlets on their platforms within the country.
Supporters of the legislation argue that it could provide much-needed support to the struggling news industry, which has faced significant challenges due to the dominance of Silicon Valley in digital advertising. According to Canadian government data, over 450 news outlets in the country have closed since 2008.
In April, proponents of the bill wrote, “Digital platforms and social media are now the gateways where people find, read, and share news. Because of this, advertising revenues have shifted away from local news and journalists to these gatekeepers, who profit from the sharing and distribution of Canadian news content.”
Both Google and Meta have long opposed the Canadian law, arguing that they already assist news organizations by driving web traffic to their sites. News articles represent a small portion of content on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, comprising approximately 3% of what users see daily on Facebook.
Google also does not consider news articles essential to its service. Therefore, the companies have opted to block links to news articles rather than initiate direct payments to news organizations.
While most prominent publishers in Canada support the new law, media observers outside the industry have expressed reservations. Tech writer Casey Newton has warned that taxing the display of links could potentially “break the internet” if applied more broadly.
Critics have also raised concerns about the lack of transparency regarding which entities would receive financial support from tech companies, with fears that disinformation sites could exploit the system.