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.
So we’re just subsidizing wages for billion dollar corporations?
All this hullabaloo and it turns out we’re just subsidizing billionaires again.
Well, consider that prior to this, Google was paying $0 to support the journalists who were driving web traffic to Google News / Search (besides paying them in exposure, of course), thereby not generating ad revenue for the actual news outlets directly. Meanwhile, Canadian tax dollars were subsidizing journalists’ salaries.
Now, Google is supporting newsrooms by being forced through C-18 to pay for the news they’re disseminating (and profiting from) to the tune of $100MM next year. That’s $100MM in the Canadian Federal Budget that’s freed up for other use (or savings).
So, not all bad. It’s imperfect legislation, but it appears that the desired outcome of this aspect of C-18 has at least partially come to fruition.
“We’re”? Are we all Google shareholders now?
No I’m talking about the legislators. And you’re right I shouldn’t say “we’re”, because I never want to be associated with those crooked shit sacks.
Our legislators put all this effort into this, and half the population seems to support it now, but at the end of the day it’s just another subsidy for the rich.
Just because the money doesn’t come from taxpayers doesn’t mean it’s not a subsidy. The government spent time and effort to pass legislation that benefits the rich monetarily. That is a subsidy. That the money does not come from taxpayers is a detail they expounded on to win over public opinion, and it worked. People used to be against this.