If you’ve been on social media, specifically Twitter, you’ll probably have seen a lot about Bill C-18, known as the Online News Act. Among the legislation’s objectives was to force Meta (aka Facebook), and Google to pay for sharing, and previewing links. The legislation passed in the House of Commons last week, and becomes effective by the end of this year.

Google announced that once the legislation becomes law, it will remove Canadian news from its products including Google News, search, and discover and will no longer maintain its showcase. Meta has also announced it will do the same from its Facebook, and Instagram products. Meta will also end its contract with the Canadian Press for its journalism fellowships, causing the potential elimination of 30 positions.

This is a bad thing all around. Smaller outlets rely on the revenue they get from Google. Outlet posts an article, the more hits/ views it gets, the more money it gets. In the wake of the collapse of the advertising-driven model, larger outlets are as well relying on the spread of their content through Facebook, and Google. More clicks= more revenue.

The spread of disinformation is rampant, and made worse by AI. The elimination of credible news sources via Google, makes it even more prevalent, because there will be no way for Canadians to verify the information which is what will happen if they carry out their threat. It makes the other changes I talked about in part one worse. An uninformed public is bad for democracy.

The government’s proposal was never going to 100% fix what ails the media sector, and the debate is still ongoing as to whether C-18 should even exist. It’s completely foolish to pretend that Meta, and Google wouldn’t make good on threats. Google closed their news operations in Spain for 8 years in 2014, only reopening last November when there was an agreement. They restricted links in Australia, when that country introduced similar policy until an agreement was reached. Google is a company that keeps its word.

It stands to be a total policy failure for Canadians, that could also be fatal to many media outlets.