“In the coming days,” the Trudeau government will table its bill that will force Google and Facebook to compensate the Canadian media whose news they relay. The country is thus following in the footsteps of Australia, which inspired it to legislate. Waiting for the smallest details, decryption of an inspiring model, but which is not flawless.
Media and experts interviewed by The duty agree automatically: imitating Australia is not only a good idea, but above all a necessary measure.
“It’s a win-win situation for everyone,” says UQAM journalism professor Jean-Hugues Roy. Facebook and Google win by encouraging traditional media, without which there wouldn’t be much content on their platforms. It would mostly be viral content and entertainment. The media gain from negotiating with [les géants du Web] to gain some oxygen in the current economic context. And the public is also a winner, because they get a lot of information on these platforms where there is a lot of misinformation, ”he notes.
A year ago, Australia was the first country to force web giants to negotiate compensation with media outlets for the use of their news content. Since then, they have guaranteed incomes of the order of millions of dollars.
But this law was not passed as a letter in the post. Initially, Canberra planned to impose arbitration on the digital platforms if the negotiation with the media did not succeed, in order to establish a fairer balance of power. However, Facebook immediately protested by blocking the distribution of informative articles to Australian users, which sparked an outcry across the globe.
Facebook and Google win by encouraging traditional media, without which there wouldn’t be much content on their platforms. It would mostly be viral content and entertainment.
The social network then backtracked, after finding a compromise with the Australian government. The latter gave Google and Facebook more time to reach agreements with certain media and thus avoid binding arbitration which would have set the royalty threshold.
Not perfect
Although inspiring, the Australian model is not perfect, believes the professor, who recommends learning from its flaws before simply copying and pasting it in Canada. “It should be ensured that the sums collected are distributed for the production of journalistic content rather than just being used to enrich the leaders of large media groups like Postmedia or Quebecor,” he warns.
“It is important that emerging and more niche media find advantageous conditions in this model and that it is not just a bonus for the main players. It would destabilize the market,” adds the director of the Duty, Brian Myles. He gives the example of the Australian press group News Corporation, of Rupert Murdoch, which holds among others the wall street journalthe New York Post, The Times, The Sun and Tea australian. The group has received significant sums from Google in return for its content. “The conglomerates got the biggest slice of the pie. »
Tired of waiting for the application of a law in the country, The duty has already concluded agreements with Facebook and Google this year, like a dozen other media across Canada. However, these relate to specific projects and not all of the news content found on these digital platforms. The bill proposed by the Trudeau government to these press companies will certainly allow them to get more income from the giants of the Web.
Negotiations
Among the stakeholders interviewed, the negotiation criteria are also at the heart of their concerns. “Are we going to have the possibility of group negotiations? Intermediate and small players do not necessarily have the financial resources to be well supported and advised in the context of such negotiations”, maintains Stéphane Lavallée, director general of the National Cooperative for Independent Information, which is part of media that already have agreements.
For his part, Brian Myles hopes that everyone will be able to choose to negotiate with their peers or individually. “Some may be better served on their own. There is such a disparity of business models in the media that I don’t know if collective bargaining can meet all the needs. »
“Currently, what is very debatable is that several of us have signed agreements with Google and Facebook, but our agreements are confidential. It is difficult to situate oneself in relation to other media. It does not shed much light and it opens the door to inequities,” adds Stéphane Lavallée, showing himself open to the amounts defined in future agreements being public.
One thing is certain, the bill will not solve the media crisis, says the president of the Professional Federation of Journalists of Quebec, Michaël Nguyen. “It will be a small victory, and we will take it, but there will still be a lot to do for the media to get back on track and be certain of their survival. »