The Trudeau government will soon ask Google and Facebook to invest in a “diverse news media ecosystem” so that its Australian-inspired revenue-sharing model doesn’t just benefit big news outlets, it said. learned The duty.
The bill promised during the last election campaign aims to encourage the main digital platforms to agree with the news media whose content they relay. This new Canadian framework will be designed to be more “transparent” than Australia’s, says a government source.
The text, which has still not been tabled in Parliament, would thus detail a series of criteria intended to assess the overall value of the agreements concluded between the media and the platforms, if the latter want to avoid a costly arbitration process. For example, they will have to ensure fair compensation for the media, preserve journalistic independence and freedom of expression and, finally, demonstrate that they invest in a diversity of media outlets.
The Liberal government wants a wide range of media to benefit from the new legal framework, and not just a handful of large media companies. This was one of the main criticisms of Australia’s model, adopted in 2021, which now serves as inspiration in Ottawa.
Australian law forces platforms to pay for news relayed by their users, an amount that can ultimately be set by an arbitrator. They can, however, avoid this obligation by concluding financing agreements with a sufficient number of news media. The Californian giants Google and Facebook were initially strongly opposed to the project, one having threatened to leave the country and the other having temporarily restricted the distribution of news by its subscribers on Australian territory. They finally agreed with several media, including with the powerful group News Corporation.
Balance to market forces
In Canada, the upcoming bill would appoint a regulator to check whether platforms make enough deals to be excluded from arbitration. He wouldn’t have to approve deals with every media outlet. This regulator could impose fines and force platforms to subscribe to a “code of conduct” on freedom of the press.
For the sake of transparency, the government should make public the list of targeted platforms as well as the participating media. For the moment, only the giants Google and Facebook would be concerned, since they monopolize the major part of online advertising revenues. However, the government reserves some leeway to include new platforms that may emerge in the future.
Ottawa, according to this same source familiar with the matter, wishes to “achieve a balance to protect freedom of the press”, by offering the legal framework, but by not interfering directly in the agreements between the media and the platforms. These agreements would be intended to be left “to market forces”. Small media would be eligible, and would have the right to bargain collectively.
Towards collective bargaining
Already, the president of the pressure group News Media Canada, based in Toronto, is preparing to bring together as many media as possible to negotiate with one voice with the giants of the Web.
“We will facilitate collective bargaining. For anyone who wants to join us, you are welcome, ”says Paul Deegan, who claims 580 Canadian publications among his members, on the phone.
According to him, the Australian model already gives pride of place to the smallest players in the industry. “We spoke to them, they are very happy! If they are as successful as in Australia, these agreements with Google and Facebook could make it possible to finance up to a third of the costs of Canadian newsrooms, he estimates. Given the precarious financial situation of several media outlets, he would like to see the bill passed before the summer, which would require the text to be tabled quickly in the House of Commons.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instructed his Minister of Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez, to “ask the web giants to pay their fair share” in his mandate letter released in December. During the last election campaign last fall, the Liberal Party promised to table a bill to “restore the balance with the digital giants” within the first hundred days of its mandate. The text is therefore expected from one day to another since February.
The social network Facebook, critical of the Australian model on the pretext that it “does not take into account how the Internet works”, had proposed in 2021 its own recipe for the fair sharing of its profits with the news media, in the form of licenses allowing use of content. He then signed agreements with several media in the country, including The duty, for publishing articles in an experimental interface. Facebook was already saying it favored smaller organizations focused on local and digital journalism. That same year, Google also entered into agreements with Canadian media, including The duty.