Google hits a paywall. On the heels of a deal struck last week between Ottawa and Google, the search behemoth will pay Canadian news publishers $100 million/year for the privilege of hosting their content. Is that a win for Ottawa? Well, on one hand, Canada is now one of the first countries to compel digital platforms to pay (and help keep alive) news publishers. On the other, $100 million is the exact number Google offered pre-standoff and 42% less than what the government wanted. Either way, at least the public can once again access news through Google.
Ottawa has agreed to set a $100-million yearly cap on payments that Google will be required to make to media companies when the government’s controversial online news legislation takes effect at the end of the year.
The legislation is called The Online News Act passed earlier this year and would force platforms like Google, Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, to strike deals with Canadian media publishers for sharing, linking, previewing, and directing users to online Canadian news content.
The money makes it to Canada. In the worst case scenario it gets to Canadian shareholders. With the framework in place, if tomorrow CP24 gets separated from Bell Media, a part of this money will go to CP24 instead of Bell. Also you don’t have to pretend that all Canadian media is owned by ROBeLUS. It won’t make it true and it doesn’t change the fact that this is compensation for Canadian labor which created wealth for an American corporation.