The ''Online News Act'' (french: Loi sur les nouvelles en ligne), known commonly as Bill C-18, is a Canadian federal statute. Introduced in the

44th Canadian Parliament The 44th Canadian Parliament is the session of the Parliament of Canada which began on 22 November 2021, with the membership of the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons, having been determined by the results of the 2021 Canadian federal ...

, passed by the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

on June 15, 2023, and receiving

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in other ...

on June 22, 2023, the act will implement a framework under which ''digital news intermediaries'' (including

search engine A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...

s and

social networking service A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, act ...

s) that hold an asymmetric position must bargain with online news publishers to compensate them for the act of reproducing or facilitating access to their content via their platforms.

Purpose

The goal of the law is to enhance the sustainability of the Canadian digital news market by "establish nga framework through which digital news intermediary operators and news businesses may enter into agreements respecting news content that is made available by digital news intermediaries." The bill and its provisions will be enforced under regulations that will be regulated by the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...

(CRTC). The exact regulatory policies will be determined by the CRTC, with public consultations to begin in late-2023, the bargaining code to be published in mid-2024, and enforcement to begin by late-2024 or early-2025. The primary component of Bill C-18 is a provision that allows an ''eligible news business'' (acting alone or in a group) to initiate mandatory bargaining with a ''digital news intermediary''—an online communications platform (such as a

social media service Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social media ...

, excluding platforms whose primary purpose is to allow users to communicate with each other privately) that reproduces news content in whole or in part, or otherwise facilitates access to it by any means—if it is determined that there is a "significant bargaining power imbalance" between the intermediary's operator and the ''news business'' (based on size, strategic advantages, and whether they hold a "prominent market position"). ''News businesses'' are eligible under the ''Act'' if they are either: * A "qualified Canadian journalism organization''"'' under the ''Income Tax Act.'' * A licensed community, campus, or Indigenous broadcaster. * A publisher that: ** Is devoted primarily to "news content of public interest" and not a specific topic or industry. ** Employs at least two journalists in Canada, ** Is a member of a "recognized journalistic association" or otherwise has a code of journalistic ethics that follows principles of "fairness, independence and rigour in reporting news and handling sources". * An Indigenous news outlet that publishes news content of general interest, and issues specific to

Indigenous peoples in Canada In Canada, Indigenous groups comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. Although ''Indian'' is a term still commonly used in legal documents, the descriptors ''Indian'' and ''Eskimo'' have fallen into disuse in Canada, and most consider them ...

. The process involves three steps: bargaining,

mediation Mediation is a structured, interactive process where an impartial third party neutral assists disputing parties in resolving conflict through the use of specialized communication and negotiation techniques. All participants in mediation are ...

, and "final offer"

arbitration Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that resolves disputes outside the judiciary courts. The dispute will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or 'arbitral tribunal'), which renders the ' ...

. An ''intermediary'' may request an ''exemption order'' from the CRTC if it certifies that they have entered into agreements with ''news businesses'' that meet requirements for fair compensation and other factors specified by Section 11(1).

Reception

Supporters of the bill argue that it would address an imbalance between dominant tech companies and Canadian publishers, by requiring them to provide fair compensation for the dissemination of news content via their platforms. The trade association News Media Canada stated that the bill would "restore fairness and ensure the sustainability of the Canadian news media ecosystem." The logic is that in the absence of the law, ''intermediaries'' leverage Canadian-produced news content without compensation due to their dominance, and thus hold an asymmetric bargaining position. Writing for the '' Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts'', Ariel Katz—associate professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law—argued that the bill enables drastic measures under questionable assumptions, including new rights for news publishers that are absent in the ''Copyright Act'', allowing collective bargaining (effectively media cartels) beyond what is allowed by the ''Status of the Artist Act'', and providing large exemptions from the ''

Competition Act The ''Competition Act'' is a Canadian federal law governing competition law in Canada. The Act contains both Criminal law of Canada, criminal and Civil law (common law), civil provisions aimed at preventing anti-competitive practices in the econ ...

''. He argued that shielding media companies from competition, even the largest ones, will "sedate" these public watchdogs. University of Ottawa professor

Michael Geist Michael Allen Geist (born July 11, 1968) is a Canadian academic, the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa and a member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society. Geist was educated at the Univers ...

argued that the ''Online News Act'' and '' Online Streaming Act'' represented misplaced priorities by the

Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...

government, arguing that it was focusing more on using "

big tech Big Tech, also known as the Tech Giants, refers to the most dominant companies in the information technology industry, mostly located in the United States. The term also refers to the four or five largest American tech companies, called the Big ...

" as an " ATM" to fund Canada's media and publishing industries rather than focusing on "problematic conduct" via information privacy and data governance laws. He also criticized the bill for not taking into account the impact of generative artificial intelligence on the news industry (with its definition of an ''intermediary'' not being able to cover companies such as OpenAI), and noted that according to Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, the bill would only apply to

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

and

Meta Platforms Meta Platforms, Inc., (file no. 3835815) trade name, doing business as Meta and formerly named Facebook, Inc., and TheFacebook, Inc., is an American multinational technology conglomerate based in Menlo Park, California. The company owns Facebo ...

—leaving out other Big Tech companies such as

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...

and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

, as well as X (formerly Twitter). Also, the definition of eligible news businesses was expanded, and goes beyond the standards established under the Income Tax Act which gover
Qualified Canadian Journalism Organizations
As a result, the bill would require payments to broadcasters that might not produce journalism or original news content. Geist argues "That isn't funding for journalism or journalists. It is creating a subsidy program that only requires a CRTC-issued licence."

Sue Gardner Sue Gardner (born May 11, 1967) is a Canadian journalist, not-for-profit executive and business executive. She was the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation from December 2007 until May 2014, and before that was the director of the Can ...

believed that Bill C-18 was a response to a perceived failure of legacy publishers to adapt their business models to the disruption of

digital media Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...

, that media outlets "vigorously compete to maximize their presences" on Google and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

because of the exposure they provided, and acknowledged that in ''Crooks v. Newton,'' the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

established that hyperlinks were an "indispensable" aspect of the Internet and "should be facilitated rather than discouraged." She felt that the law would only provide benefits to legacy companies due to the eligibility requirements, and that it would reduce the accessibility of Canadian journalism if social media platforms chose to block the ability to share links to news in Canada. She also felt that a requirement for ''intermediaries'' to not discriminate against or otherwise give ''news businesses'' undue or unreasonable preference could be strictly interpreted as prohibiting any sort of algorithmic ranking or targeting of news content by intermediaries. On August 2, 2023,

Pierre Poilievre Pierre Marcel Poilievre ( ; born June 3, 1979) is a Canadian politician who has served as the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and the leader of the Official Opposition since 2022. Poilievre has served as a member of Parliament (MP) ...

—

leader Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets vi ...

of the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

opposition—stated that the bill was an instrument of

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

by the Liberal Party government; it was noted that the Conservatives' platform under previous leader

Erin O'Toole Erin Michael O'Toole (born January 22, 1973) is a Canadian politician who has been the member of Parliament (MP) for Durham since 2012. A member of the Conservative Party, O'Toole served as the party's leader and the leader of the Official ...

had included proposals for a similar scheme.

Reaction

After the bill received royal assent, Google and Meta Platforms (including Facebook and

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

) announced that in order to relieve their obligations under Bill C-18, they would no longer make news content available to users in Canada via their services. Google's president of global affairs

Kent Walker Kent Walker is an American legal executive who has served as President of Global Affairs and Chief legal officer of Alphabet since 2021. Education and career Walker graduated from Harvard College and Stanford Law School. Before joining Google, Wa ...

stated that the bill was "unworkable" and "exposes us to uncapped financial liability simply for facilitating access to news from Canadian publications". Due to Bill C-18, Google stated that it would be withdrawing all Canadian publishers from programs such as

Google News Google News is a news aggregator service developed by Google. It presents a continuous flow of links to articles organized from thousands of publishers and magazines. Google News is available as an app on Android, iOS, and the Web. Google rel ...

Showcase (in which Google enters into agreements to pay news outlets to curate highlighted stories featured in widgets on Google News and its mobile apps), whose launch in territories such as Australia came amid the implementation of similar bargaining rules. Google had initially stated that it was willing to pay its share (two thirds of $150 million in estimated annual revenue from the bill), but that it wanted to contribute to a single fund rather than pay individual publishers. Meta began to implement its blocks in late-July 2023; it is blocking all links to news content, as well as accounts of news organizations, for Canadian users of Facebook and

, regardless of whether or not they are based in Canada. The restrictions had also briefly applied to the accounts of news satire website ''

The Beaverton ''The Beaverton'' is a primarily online Canadian news satire publication, based in Toronto, Montreal and Whitehorse.metadata Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...

, but this was resolved after consultations with the site's founder. Concerns were raised that the blockage of news content from social networks could result in the wider accessibility of fake news content. Rodriguez criticized Meta for its intent to block news in Canada rather than agree to provide compensation (as it eventually did in Australia), and stated that their actions were premature because the bill has not yet been formally implemented. He announced that the federal government would suspend its purchasing of advertising on Facebook and Instagram effective immediately, considering it inappropriate to do so "while they refuse to pay their fair share to Canadian news organizations". Other Canadian jurisdictions (including the provinces of

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

and

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

) as well as the CBC, labour unions

Unifor Unifor is a general trade union in Canada and the largest private sector union in Canada. It was founded in 2013 as a merger of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and Communications, Energy and Paperworkers unions, and consists of 310,000 workers an ...

and FTQ, and media companies that supported the bill, also announced that they would pull their advertising from Meta platforms effective immediately. On July 26, 2023, Rodriguez was reassigned to Minister of Transport, and

Pascale St-Onge Pascale St-Onge (born May 13, 1977) is a Canadian politician who was elected to represent the riding of Brome—Missisquoi in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2021 Canadian federal election. St-Onge is the former president of the . She l ...

was named his successor. St-Onge stated that the government would continue to " tandour ground", and that "Canadians expect tech giants to pay their fair share". In August 2023, a complaint was filed under the ''

'' by the CBC, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), and News Media Canada. The complaint alleged that Meta was abusing its "already dominant position in advertising and social media distribution" and "substantial control" of the news industry, by blocking content and not allowing good faith negotiations with news businesses, thus denying them fair compensation and impairing their ability to "compete effectively in the news publishing and online advertising market". Geist considered the complaint to be "flawed", arguing that Meta did not have "substantial control" over access to news because social media accounted for 17-30% of traffic to news websites according to Senate testimony, Rodriguez had repeatedly mentioned that blocking news content was a potential "business choice" for compliance with the ''Act'', and that the complaint contained contradictory statements alleging that blocking news was "degrading" Meta but "entrenching its dominant market power" at the same time. Meta's decision had a negative impact on Indigenous communities, with Ku'ku'kwes News, Shubie FM and PSAs from the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke being among those that had their content blocked. Other small news outlets, such as

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

's River Valley Sun and CHCO-TV, as well as

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...

Nunatsiaq News ''Nunatsiaq News'' ( iu, ᓄᓇᑦᓯᐊᕐᒥ ᐱᕙᓪᓕᐊᔪᑦ, italic=no) is a Canadian weekly newspaper in operation since 1973 based in Iqaluit, serving Nunavut and Nunavik, in Kativik, Quebec, Kativik, Nord-du-Québec. The paper is publ ...

, had also expressed concern or disapproval towards Meta's actions. Amid the

2023 Canadian wildfires Beginning in March 2023, and with increased intensity starting in June, Canada was affected by a record-setting series of wildfires. All 13 Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories were affected, with large fires in Alberta ...

, Meta received further calls from Rodriguez and St-Onge to lift its preemptive restrictions on news content, arguing that it was hindering the distribution of up-to-date information. On October 2, 2023, the

Computer & Communications Industry Association The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) is an international non-profit advocacy organization based in Washington, DC, United States which represents the information and communications technology industries. According to their ...

filed comments in response to the

Canadian Heritage The Department of Canadian Heritage, or simply Canadian Heritage (french: Patrimoine canadien), is the Ministry (government department), department of the Cabinet of Canada, Government of Canada that has roles and responsibilities related to init ...

regarding proposed regulations for the implementation of the law, and has raised concerns regarding the policy of mandatory bargaining and link taxes and highlighted how the law could violate certain provisions of the

United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement The Agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada (USMCA) Commonly known as the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) in the United States and the Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement (CU ...

. On November 29, 2023, Google said it reached an agreement with the Canadian federal government to comply with Bill C-18, under which it will make annual payments of around $100 million CAD to a collective fund that will be managed by the media sector. Geist argued that this agreement "upends" the original intent of the bill, stating that " the government was ultimately able to strike a deal largely by changing the law, albeit through yet-to-be released regulations. After claiming for months that it would not get involved in negotiations and specifying in considerable detail what any deals between platforms and media companies needed to look like, the government dropped all of that and simply negotiated the best deal it could get on behalf of Canadian news outlets." By December 2023, the fall in Canadian news views on

resulting from

Meta Meta (from the Greek μετά, '' meta'', meaning "after" or "beyond") is a prefix meaning "more comprehensive" or "transcending". In modern nomenclature, ''meta''- can also serve as a prefix meaning self-referential, as a field of study or ende ...

's news ban was equivalent to a loss of approximately 5 million views per day from official news outlet pages, according to a researcher at McGill University. The negative impact was greater for smaller sites, and some lost more than half of their audience. There was little impact on Meta, however, since after nine months the number of people using Facebook and

in Canada remained stable. The UK-based

Economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

newspaper said Meta was emboldened by its Canadian experience. In February 2024, Meta said it would not renew the deals it had struck with publishers in Australia and, in April, a former Meta head of international news partnerships predicted Meta would "walk away" in the future when faced with a demand to pay for news links.

Purpose

Reception

Reaction

See also

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

Further reading