A law that props up the news industry has turned Canada into the latest battleground for global tech giants that are pushing back against governments.
“It’s a proxy battle for them,” said Jason Kint, chief executive officer at Digital Content Next, a New York-based trade association representing media companies including News Corp., Politico and Bloomberg. “Whatever they do in Canada, they’re probably doing it more for their public policy interests in the US, UK and elsewhere.”
Trudeau has so far stood firm. This week, he hit back at Meta by suspending government advertising on Facebook and Instagram. But the hostilities between Silicon Valley and Ottawa have also highlighted a key criticism of the law. If powerful players such as Google and Facebook won’t link to news sites in Canada, the biggest losers could be innovative news startups that rely on them to reach new audiences.
Meta experimented with paying publishers directly for journalism, but has changed strategy to focus more on short-form video entertainment and less on news. Given regulatory pressures around the world, CEO Mark Zuckerberg no longer believes investing in news is worth the trouble, according to a person familiar with the matter. Posts with links to news articles make up less than 3% of what people see in their Facebook feed, according to the company.
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