Ottawa reaches deal with Google over Online News Act

Published November 29, 2023 at 11:57 am

Google and Canadian government reach deal online news act

Minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

The federal Liberal government has reached a deal with Google over the Online News Act, following threats from the digital giant that it would remove news from its search platform in Canada.

A government official confirmed that news to The Canadian Press under condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the deal.

CBC News is reporting, citing an unnamed source, that the agreement would see Canadian news continue to be shared on Google’s platforms in return for the company making annual payments to news companies in the range of $100 million.

A formula in the government’s draft regulations for the bill would have seen Google contributing up to $172 million to news organizations — but Google had said it was expecting a figure closer to $100 million based on a previous estimate.

The legislation, which comes into effect at the end of the year, requires tech giants to enter into agreements with news publishers to pay them for news content that appears on their sites, if it helps the tech giants generate money.

Google had warned that it would block news from its search engine in Canada over the legislation, as Meta has already done on Instagram and Facebook.

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