(Ottawa) Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is summoned by a Commons committee for the third time in four years – this time over the tech company’s threat to block news from Canadians on its social media platforms .
The move came on Monday, after Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, announced last week that it intended to block news on its social media platforms if the Liberals persist in pushing through the law. Online News Act in its current form.
Bill C-18 would force digital giants to pay Canadian media outlets for links that lead to their journalistic content, or for any other use of their online news.
The Heritage Committee agreed on Monday to summon Mark Zuckerberg, along with the company’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, and Meta Canada executive, Chris Saniga, to appear at an upcoming meeting.
The parliamentary committee also agreed to request the filing of internal and external documents from Meta and Google, which recently blocked access to news for some Canadian users in order to test a possible response to Bill C-18. Some critics call the request an invasion of privacy and “blackmail.”
Meta declined to answer questions on Monday, saying the company wanted to speak directly to the committee.
“As the Minister of Canadian Heritage has already said, how we choose to comply with the Online News Act is a business decision we have to make,” spokeswoman Lisa Laventure said in a statement.
She was referring to Minister Pablo Rodriguez’s response last fall to questions about whether the government was trying to prevent companies from blocking news content. “This is a business decision that needs to be made by the platform,” Rodriguez said in October.
Mr. Zuckerberg has twice previously ignored summonses from Ottawa: first in 2019, when the Ethics Committee was looking into the privacy of platform users, then in 2021, when the same Heritage Committee was studying an Australian law similar to Bill C-18.
The House of Commons does not have the power to summon people who live outside of Canada, but it can enforce the summons if those people set foot in the country – a decision that would be considered extremely rare.
An anti-democratic demand?
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is also concerned about the committee’s decision to request internal documents, which it describes as “undemocratic”. The organization is particularly concerned that communications from third parties will thus be transmitted to the committee by the band.
“Requiring and compelling that this information be shared with them in a public forum does not even meet the government’s own standards for access to the information they must provide to the public,” argued Matthew Holmes, senior vice president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce for government relations.
A Liberal MP on the committee dismisses those fears. “The external communications that we are now requesting do not include correspondence with individuals and are only for exchanges on the actions the company was considering taking or the options it was considering,” Liberal MP Anthony Housefather said on Monday. in a written statement.
“Whether between internal collaborators or with external advisers, the communications requested are targeted and reasonable. »
Canadian Chamber of Commerce CEO Perrin Beatty also wrote a letter to the committee on Sunday saying the move poses a serious threat to the privacy of Canadians, especially those who oppose the online news.
“Every individual and every organization in Canada has the right to decide whether they support Bill C-18 or any other legislation introduced in Parliament. They should be free to do so without fear of reprisals for their views,” Beatty wrote.
Scotty Greenwood, CEO of the Canadian American Business Council, also expressed concern about Ottawa’s request for internal documents. “It looks like gratuitous blackmail aimed at the United States. »
She also criticized the timing of the resolution, which was passed three days before US President Joe Biden was due to meet with Canadian parliamentarians.
“If the tables were turned and the US legislature targeted Canadian companies, there would be a scandal in Canada,” said Ms.me Greenwood.
Her organization on Friday held roundtables with senior US government officials on Biden’s upcoming visit and his agenda, she said. “Overall, our members are concerned about the targeting of American companies. »
A new exam
Yet the committee also agreed on Monday to undertake an even deeper review into what it sees as an abuse of power by tech giants around the world.
It was the Liberal MP Housefather who presented the motion for this re-examination at the heritage committee on Monday. He was supported by the other Liberal members of the committee, as well as by the New Democrats and the Bloc; the Conservative members abstained.
“It’s not just C-18s,” Housefather explained. This new committee review will address “broader questions about how very large companies are using anti-corruption tactics.”[concurrentielles] and monopolistic to seek to influence parliaments to respond to their wishes”.
“It’s not about whether C-18 is the right or the wrong approach, it’s about how tech companies are responding to this bill and others like it around the world. »
Meta funds a few grants to support emerging journalists at The Canadian Press.