The reaction of Meta and Google to the passage of the Online News Act continues to have repercussions in the media sphere. The National Federation of Culture and Communications-CSN (FNCC-CSN) denounces Friday what it describes as reprisals on the part of these digital giants.
The purpose of Bill C-18, which has just been passed by the Senate, is to help preserve Canadian journalism at a time when newsrooms are struggling to compete with web giants for revenue from online advertising.
The new law requires tech companies such as Meta and Google to negotiate deals compensating news outlets for news content they share or otherwise reuse on their platforms.
Following the passage of C-18, Google and Meta quickly announced that they would stop relaying Canadian news on their platforms.
Google hasn’t said exactly when the changes will happen, but it will be before the law comes into effect, which was passed last week and is due to be implemented by the end of the year.
In a press release denouncing the reaction of Google and Meta, the FNCC-CSN – which brings together 6,000 members in 80 unions working in communications, journalism and culture – underlines that these backlashes occur in the midst of an information crisis.
The union organization argues that this law potentially represents a necessary and equitable source of income for professionals who produce quality information.
“I find this behavior extremely detrimental. It is really the illustration of “I am the strongest, you will not impose anything on me”, underlines in interview Annick Charette, president of the FNCC-CSN. I am not sure that the purpose of these actions of Google and Meta is so much at the monetary level. »
According to Mme Charette, Google and Meta send the message that they do not have to share the gains they make, although they are generated by the work of the media.
She also specifies that the law asks them to negotiate, it does not impose a tariff on them. These Web giants could therefore make their points when it comes to negotiating prices.
Fight against misinformation
In the wake of the adoption of C-18, Meta indicated that it was terminating its royalty agreement with the National Cooperative of Independent Information (CN2i).
Meta also announced it was ending a contract with The Canadian Press that saw the digital giant support the hiring of a limited number of emerging journalists at the national newswire service.
The news agency was told Wednesday that Meta would end the contract, which has funded about 30 reporting fellowship positions for early-career reporters at The Canadian Press since the program’s inception in 2020.
“C-18’s intention is to rebalance the balance of power between the big players in the media and the smaller ones. By terminating its royalty agreement with CN2i, Meta is precisely proving the need for such a law and showing its true face,” said M.me Cart.
The fall in advertising revenues in recent years has had the effect of disaggregating newsrooms. Mme Charette fears that the decision of Meta and Google will lead to further job cuts.
According to her, the new regulations underline the limits of these multinationals in their social commitment. Facebook had pledged at the time to fight misinformation, including investing in some Canadian media.
Meta did so certainly to counter misinformation, but also because he knew that a federal bill was in the cards, says Mr.me Cart. The social networking giant wanted to show that it cares about the dissemination of quality information, but it was only window dressing, she says.
By removing the agreements they had with Canadian media, “they show that their concern about verified information was only a facade”.
“They’ve just reduced the social media space in Canada to the bare minimum of misinformation and all the fake news,” says Ms.me Cart.
She adds that collectively, we will have questions to ask ourselves. “Can we afford to have a company that no longer has a regional press? Do we want to do this because there is someone in Silicon Valley who does not want to comply with a law that was passed by a perfectly legitimate parliament? she raises.
All of the FNCC-CSN unions recently called on the government to stop buying ads on all GAFAM platforms, the acronym for the web giants — Google, Apple, Facebook (Meta), Amazon and Microsoft, until they obey the law.
The president of the federation maintains this. She argues that we cannot “let it go” and let them decide the future of our media.