What is Bill C-18?
Bill C-18, also known as the Online News Act, aims to force digital platforms such as Google or Meta to negotiate deals with Canadian news corporations.
This is in order for these news organizations to gain fair compensation when, according to the Government of Canada, “their news content is made available by dominant digital news intermediaries and generates economic gain.”
Basically, Canadian news companies want money from Google and Meta posting their links as these massive companies generate a lot of money from people using their services to find news.
Why do I think Bill C-18 is a mistake?
It sounds good that Canadian newsmakers will be compensated fairly for their work, and I agree that people deserve to be paid for their content. However, what if these companies cannot come to a deal? Well, this has already happened, and the possible outcomes are scary.
Firstly, Meta has already begun to block Canadian news from both Instagram and Facebook. These are places where many people access their news nowadays, as many don’t have cable TV anymore or simply can’t be asked to search for news.
This isn’t good, especially if Google and other companies decide to follow suit. This will force Canadians to find their news in other, more obscure places, which many people will not do. 
This will lead to Canadians falling deeper into social media addiction, and therefore, a rapid spread of misinformation on social media will occur and further fuel the ongoing Canadian culture war. Finally, it will allow the Canadian government to continue passing other bills and legislation that many Canadians won’t even know about or notice.
I also like to ask, what did the Canadian government think would happen? To survive as a business in today’s climate, you need Google and Meta, and realistically, they are more powerful than the Canadian government. Furthermore, our market needs to be bigger to matter to them.
They want power and control, and Meta is showing that by simply pulling all access to news from Canada. It was an obvious outcome, and everyone else makes money by running ads on their websites, just as Canadian news organizations should be doing, not going after the companies that supply the news to the masses.
So what’s the good news?
Well, the good news is that Google has yet to pull any Canadian news from their platform and is actively attempting to agree with Canadian news agencies. This is good news as it’s likely that Google will reach an agreement, which would be great for Canadian news.
Furthermore, Australia has done the same thing in their country, and both META and Google have agreements. So, that’s great news for us here in Canada; hopefully, it works out.
But, if it doesn’t, I am scared for myself and fellow Canadians, as our access to news will be greatly limited. It will lead Canada to become a misinformed country, and we will be missing out on major events going on in the world while we further spiral down the hole that is social media.
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