Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy Comments on Google’s Block on News in Canada

June 29, 2023

MONTREAL, Quebec – Google has become the second Big Tech platform this week, after Meta, to announce its removal of the ability for Canadian users to access news on its platform. The platforms’ actions come in response to the government’s Online News Act, which received Royal Assent last week.

The Online News Act will compel platforms like Meta and Google to share the revenue they earn from news distributed on their platforms. It follows similar policies passed in countries like Australia and tabled in the United States Senate and in the state of California, all aimed at rebalancing the power dynamics in the digital news industry.

The following can be attributed to Supriya Dwivedi, Director of Policy & Engagement at the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy:

“It should not come as a surprise that Meta or Google followed through on their threat to pull news for Canadians on their platforms – this is part of their established playbook. They know that other, more populous jurisdictions are planning to pass similar bills and have chosen to take the dramatic step to block all news content on their platforms in Canada as a warning shot to jurisdictions like the United Kingdom and California to try and intimidate and dissuade them from following through on their own regulatory measures to help bolster journalism and reign in Big Tech. If Google and Meta’s response is to pull news from their platforms in every jurisdiction that enacts policy it dislikes, then we need to be having a much more pressing conversation on the role these companies play in our democratic society.”

Media Relations

Phaedra de Saint-Rome

phaedra.desaint-rome[at]mcgill.ca