Bill C-18 outlines criteria for Canadian news outlets and is available online to review on the Parliament of Canada website. (Christian Savard, CMRU.ca)
Bill C-18 is new legislation that will come into effect December 19, 2023. It was introduced and passed to benefit the Canadian news media industry which saw a loss in subscriptions and ad revenue due to the dominance of big tech companies including Meta and Google. The bill would see these companies enter into agreements with news outlets and provide both negotiable and mandatory compensation for the content disseminated on their platforms.
I agree with the principle of Bill C-18, but I also think that it has resulted in a problem for our news industry unless there is repeal. There is a lot to have been taken into consideration before the bill was passed that was overlooked, and the problem we currently face comes out of a flaw in the criteria of the act itself.
A Flaw in the Criteria
The bill outlines that the amount of compensation to be received by news outlets is relative to the number of full-time journalists employed. The problem this criteria creates is that the CBC – the largest state-funded employer of full-time journalists – is set to receive the biggest share under the act. Smaller news outlets are dependent on part-time freelancers to stay afloat and won’t be able to compete as the compensation allows for the CBC to increase its number of full-time journalists. Bill C-18 will effectively reinforce the CBC’s dominance in the Canadian news media market.
The act doesn’t live up to its purpose of ensuring fairness. The government could have taken this into consideration and based the compensation on criteria other than the number of full-time employed journalists to alleviate this potential issue. The CBC could have also been excluded altogether, with a priority placed on smaller outlets that would have benefitted the most. As the CBC grows and the Canadian news industry shrinks, our information will come increasingly from a concentrated source.
Big Tech Retaliates
Another flaw with Bill C-18 was the assumption that big tech would welcome Canadian news outlets to the bargaining table. In August of 2023 Meta retaliated to the legislation by pre-emptively blocking Canadian news content on Facebook and Instagram, preventing the company from being subject to the act. Google is set to follow suit.
Most Canadians look to Facebook, Instagram and Google to find the news, and being cut off from these integral and convenient platforms can be consequential. When Meta blocked news content during the 2023 Canadian wildfires Canadians no longer had access on Facebook to vital information about the crisis. Consumers have since had to adapt by going directly to Canadian news sources, and news outlets have seen a tremendous loss in traffic and advertising that was dependent on social media platforms.
As Canada’s news industry adapts to Bill C-18, and we continue to push for Meta and Google to restore our accessibility to news content and compensation, I consider if what’s happening reveals a need for change. Is it time for Canada to become more independent from the platforms of the United States and establish our own mainstream digital communications – our own social media? Are Canadians ready for a digital immigration?
What Now?
I agree with the intention of Bill C-18 to ensure compensation for Canadian news outlets, but its execution has resulted in big problems for the Canadian news industry. At this point we can either repeal, or evolve.
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