Because it’s war between Meta and publishers in Canada
Meta, the group headed by social networks Facebook and Instagram, will stop access to news in Canada due to the Online News Act, the upcoming law on paying publishers for access to news on digital platforms
It's a battle between Meta and Canada over access to news on the digital platforms of the group founded by Mark Zuckerberg.
Facebook and Instagram will block access to Canadian media posts, their parent company Meta said , in response to a law it just passed in Canada that forces internet giants to pay to post local media content.
The decision comes after the North American country passed the Online News Act, legislation that requires digital companies to pay Canadian media for their content. The measure will only come into force in six months.
Canadian media groups hailed the passage of the bill as a step towards market fairness.
The move follows a similar law passed in 2021 in Australia , requiring digital platforms like Facebook and Google to pay national media outlets when they link to their content in search or feeds.
All the details.
MARK ZUCKERBERG'S IRON FIST
“Today we confirm that news content will no longer be available on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada,” Meta said in a statement, noting that it had warned “repeatedly” that this action would be taken.
The Menlo Park-based tech giant added that "changes affecting news content will have no impact on Meta's products and services in Canada."
THE POSITION OF THE TRUDEAU GOVERNMENT
“If the government can't defend Canadians from web giants, who will?”, reacted the Minister of Heritage Pablo Rodriguez. Facebook was "under no obligation" to stop this access, as the law had not yet formally gone into effect, it added. The minister's office also stressed that it had "met with Facebook and Google this week" and remained open to further negotiations.
WHAT THE ONLINE NEWS ACT PROVIDES FOR
The legislation comes in response to complaints from Canada's media industry that it wants tighter regulation of tech companies to prevent them from elbowing news companies out of the online advertising market.
Thus, the Online News Act requires digital giants to enter into fair trade agreements with Canadian media outlets for publications shared on their platforms, or risk having to resort to binding arbitration.
The Canadian rules follow a similar step already taken in 2021 by Canberra with a revolutionary law that obliges digital platforms to remunerate newspapers.
ON THE FOOT OF WAR FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE IN CANADA
But the US tech giants have said the proposals are unsustainable for their businesses. Google argued that Canada's law is broader than those enacted in Australia and Europe, arguing that it puts a price on news links displayed in search results and can apply to outlets that don't produce news.
Indeed, Facebook only reinstated news content for its users in Australia after talks with the government resulted in amendments to the law that gave tech companies two months to negotiate with the media.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia-on-demand/perche-e-guerra-tra-meta-e-gli-editori-in-canada/ on Fri, 23 Jun 2023 14:28:09 +0000.