Google and Meta threaten to limit news services in Canada if bill passes

Google and Meta executives threatened to remove news links found in Canadians' search results if a law is passed that would force Internet companies to pay media outlets to use their content.

In testimony before a Canadian Senate committee, Google's vice president of news, Richard Gringrass, explained that Bill C-18 would put the company at risk of incurring "uncapped financial liability" if it had to pay media outlets for linking to them.

Grigrass also pointed to Google's help to the media, noting that last year the company linked up with Canadian news publishers by making them money from ads and new subscriptions.

Rachel Curran, Meta's director of public policy in Canada, added to Google's concerns and stated that the current legislative proposal would also force her company to end the availability of news content in that country.

"A framework that requires us to compensate publishers for links or news content they voluntarily put on our platforms is unworkable," Curran said, highlighting that in 12 months, Facebook sent Canadian publishers nearly 2 billion clicks, translating to about 230 million dollars in free marketing.

Heritage Ministry spokeswoman Laura Scaffidi insisted that all that is expected is that the technology giants reach "fair" agreements with the media when they benefit from their work.