Senior Google executives disappointed federal elected members of a parliamentary committee on Friday by refusing to answer many questions about the blocking of news sites on the search engine for some Canadian Internet users.
“I have a lot of trouble with your answers. These are very clear questions! I want this to be noted, “said Liberal MP Hedy Fry, chair of the parliamentary committee of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage (CHPC).
Google Canada Vice-President and National Director Sabrina Geremia repeatedly told a parliamentary committee on Friday that part of the country’s internet users don’t see news articles in their Google search of a “product test”. And not, she assures, of a permanent “product decision”.
This information was hammered home, regardless of the many questions asked by elected officials from all parties. The Google representative also refused to explain why her company did not provide the requested documents. At one point, MPs demanded that Ms Geremia swear an oath to tell only the truth.
The parliamentary committee demanded, for example, that all internal communications related to its plan to limit articles in Canadian search results, such as emails, as well as a list of affected media, be obtained. The committee only received information publicly available on the company’s website.
The multinational company has been conducting this experiment since February 9 with approximately 4% of Canadian users, selected at random. This is a reaction to Bill C-18, currently before the Canadian Parliament, which aims to share advertising revenues between the giants of the Web and the news media.
Liberal MP Anthony Housefather calculated that about 1.2 million Canadians no longer see news sites when they do a keyword search on Google. This estimate was not disputed by the company’s representative. Ms. Geremia did not want to say Friday if these Internet users are notified, as asked by Bloc Québécois MP Martin Champoux.
For a price on the links
In their presentation, Google Canada officials said that Bill C-18 “sets a price for free links to web pages,” which the company opposes. On the contrary, Google judges that the links it generates represent “free traffic” to media sites. In 2022, the search engine redirected internet users to media sites 3.6 billion times, worth it estimates at $250 million.
“Requiring payment based on links encourages cheap clickbait, not quality journalism,” also reads Google’s official response posted Friday.
Bloc Québécois Martin Champoux objected to this interpretation, recalling that his party passed an amendment so that all media companies covered by this law must at least subscribe to a code of conduct. Google’s public policy manager, Jason Kee, countered that sections of the law fall outside this rule, based on his reading.
With C-18, the government’s intention is above all to force Google and Facebook to negotiate with press companies for a sharing of advertising revenues, failing which the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) would act as an arbiter between the parts. This is when there could, in theory, be a price set on a link to a news page.
Negotiation tactics
Even though the Conservatives proposed amending C-18 on this aspect, its elected committee members were shocked by the actions taken by the multinational. “It is not a way to negotiate and I believe it is a mistake on your part,” reacted MP Martin Shields.
Australia has passed a bill similar to that being considered in Canada. Google reacted by threatening to leave the country in 2021 before finally complying with the law.
According to Google, news articles are still very accessible to Canadians, even when targeted by its “product test”, since Internet users can still consult them on its browser. Google Canada has confirmed to Duty that this experiment will end next week. The company also points out that it contributes financially to the business model of many media. In particular, it has entered into an agreement with The duty.
The federal parliamentary committee first subpoenaed executives from Google’s U.S. parent company, Alphabet, such as its chairman and chief executive Sundar Pichai, and its president of global affairs and chief legal officer, Kent Walker. These US officials did not show up for the meeting, even though it was possible to join virtually.
“There will be consequences,” New Democratic Party MP Peter Julien said on Monday, shortly before a technical problem forced the postponement of the parliamentary committee meeting to Friday.
The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, himself criticized the behavior of the famous search engine in February. “Google would rather prevent Canadians from accessing the news than want to pay journalists for the work they do as professionals. It’s really sad,” he said.