The Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez, does not make much of the fact that Facebook does not rule out the possibility of preventing the publication of news texts on its social network in the country, should its Bill C-18, aimed at forcing the web giants to compensate the media, be adopted.
“Me, the threat, it does not make me tremble well well,” he said Wednesday during a press scrum before entering a meeting of his party’s caucus.
Mr. Rodriguez, who is also a Quebec Liberal lieutenant, has repeatedly reiterated that professional journalism is “a pillar of our democracy” and that it is “just normal” that platforms that benefit from the value of journalistic content contribute to newsrooms.
Either way, he believes Facebook has the right to shut down certain services, not failing to point out that they made a similar threat to Australia and “ultimately they stayed.”
“They backed off and the Australian people didn’t like it very much and I don’t think the Canadian people like it much either,” he said.
At a meeting of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security the previous day, a senior executive from Meta Canada, the company that operates Facebook in the country, suggested that removing the ability to post news articles on the platform remains an option on the table.
“We are reviewing all options based on our assessment of the bill,” Rachel Curran, public policy manager, said in response to the committee’s Conservative vice chair Raquel Danquo specifically asking her the question.
Minister Rodriguez also accused Facebook’s spokesperson of having “lied” by stating that Facebook was not consulted on the bill, having met with them himself. However, Ms. Curran rather indicated that the company was unaware of its scope until the bill was tabled.
“Premature”
Conservatives, for their part, said Facebook was a little too quick on the trigger.
“For now, it was premature in my opinion for a giant like that to try to threaten parliamentarians even before we study the bill,” said their deputy leader and political lieutenant for Quebec, Luc Berthold.
The MP, who was editor before entering politics, said that regional and local newspapers have gone from 100 to 24, even 16 pages.
“It makes absolutely no sense,” he said indignantly. And where did all that advertising money go? It’s not true that businesses don’t advertise. So we’ve seen advertising money leak to the web giants. »
And although Mr. Berthold refuses to say clearly whether his training will support the bill, Senator Claude Carignan, who will be the critic in the upper house, declared that “we will … in any case, on my side , I will support it”.
“It demonstrates the need to pass the bill,” he said. I think we have to make sure that Facebook respects the rules like all the others. And when you think you’re more powerful than a government, it’s time to act, then make sure you share the content. »
New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh said such a statement by Facebook is not surprising “because they threatened to do the same in Australia.”
“They don’t want to pay their fair share, but that shouldn’t stop us from doing what’s right,” he said at a press conference.
Bill C-18, which was introduced earlier this month, aims to force digital platforms such as Facebook to enter into “fair” indemnification agreements with newsrooms.
If the effect of the legislation proves comparable to that already adopted in Australia, the sums returning to the Canadian information media are estimated between 150 to 200 million $, had evoked the Minister Rodriguez.