In response to the new online news bill (C-18) implemented by the Canadian government, MetaRestricting access to local news and broadcast content on Facebook and Instagram services in CanadaLater, Google followed the same practice and removed local news content links from Google Search, News and other services in Canada.
In addition, Google will also prepare to stop operating news services in Canada once the new online news law comes into effect in Canada.
Cris Turner, Google's vice president of government affairs, said Canada's new online news law is too strict compared to EU regulations that allow Google services to use news headlines, links and short summaries for free, and to the Czech Republic, which still allows Google to use online news headlines and links on its services despite taking a stricter approach.
Even though the Australian government previously required Internet service providers to pay for the use of news content, after negotiations, it still allowed Google to maintain its existing service operation model. At the same time, Google also invested 10 billion Australian dollars (about NT$200 billion) to assist the development of the local news industry.
Cris Turner believes that under the influence of the new Online News Act implemented by the Canadian government, Internet service providers will face unlimited pressure to "pay for news use", so they have to decide to shut down news content-related application services in Canada, including restricting Canadian users from searching and viewing local news content through Google services.
However, Cris Turner stressed that Google is still actively communicating with the Canadian government, hoping to find a suitable solution through negotiation.
Prior to this, due to the influence of Internet search services and online social platforms, the way most users viewed online news changed significantly, causing the traffic of many news content websites to be significantly affected, and also causing a significant reduction in online advertising revenue. Therefore, the Canadian government hopes to require Google, Meta and other companies to pay for the use of news content on their services through the new Internet News Act, so that news content websites can obtain corresponding revenue.
