Feds respond to tech giants’ concerns through proposed regulations

Canadian Heritage is proposing regulations under the Online News Act that aim to clarify how the legislation will be interpreted and carried out, addressing some of the tech giants’ concerns. The announcement on Monday laid out Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez’s plans to clarify the criteria digital platforms will have to meet if they want to be exempt from mandatory bargaining and final offer arbitration. The proposed regulations will also establish a threshold for contributions, putting a limit on the otherwise uncapped financial liability that companies like Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc. would face for facilitating access to news sites. This comes after both companies announced they would be removing Canadian news links from their platforms. The government and industry responded to Meta with a boycott, pulling all of its advertising investments from the company. According to Monday’s announcement, these financial thresholds will be “specific to each platform” and based on their estimated Canadian revenues. Effectively breaking the legislation away from the model of paying for links, which Google has been especially critical of, and instead moves it towards regulated contribution requirements. Canadian Heritage also plans to “provide clarity on what constitutes a ‘significant portion’ of independent local news businesses, Indigenous news outlets, and official-language minority community news outlets” as they are written in the act. Along with a clear explanation of exemption criteria and establishing financial thresholds, many of these proposed regulations were previously suggested by Google before the act was signed into law, like counting non-monetary support as a form of contribution and taking existing agreements with news organizations into account. “We have no idea what we need to do and how we have to accomplish it. We have no idea if the programs that we have in place will satisfy criteria or not,” said a Google spokesperson during a technical briefing on June 5, 2023, back when the act was still before the Senate. The programs they were referring to include Google Showcase, which licenses content from news publications, the Google News Initiative, which provides funding and training to publishers, and Google News Lab, which invests in training data journalists. At the time, Google said although the act had similarities to Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code, the criteria in Canada is much more vague, leaving it unclear how many deals should be made and how much money should be spent on them. Rodriguez’s exemption plans now move the legislation closer to that of Australia. “The development of these draft regulations is currently underway,” Canadian Heritage stated in its release. After a public consultation period, they will be finalized and come into force on the date prescribed. Despite the potential these regulations have in de-escalating tensions with Google, it remains to be seen if a compromise will be found with Meta, who has so far refused to negotiate with the government. – Reporting by Phalen Tynes-MacDonald at pcreed@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca.

Feds respond to tech giants’ concerns through proposed regulations

News | July 11, 2023

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Feds respond to tech giants’ concerns through proposed regulations

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