Google is blocking some Canadian users from viewing news content in what the company said Wednesday is a test run of a potential response to a Canadian...
OTTAWA, Ontario — Google is blocking some Canadian users from viewing news content in what the company said Wednesday is a test run of a potential response to a Canadian government’s online news bill.
Bill C-18, the Online News Act, would require digital giants such as Alphabet’s GOOG GOOGL Google and Meta META , which owns Facebook, to negotiate deals that would compensate Canadian media companies for republishing their content on their platforms. “We’re briefly testing potential product responses to Bill C-18 that impact a very small percentage of Canadian users,” Google spokesman Shay Purdy said in a written statement on Wednesday in response to questions from The Canadian Press.
A spokeswoman for Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said Canadians will not be intimidated and called it disappointing that Google is borrowing from Meta’s playbook. Last year, that company threatened to block news off its site in response to the bill. Rodriguez has argued the bill, which is similar to a law that Australia passed in 2021, will “enhance fairness” in the digital news marketplace by creating a framework and bargaining process for online behemoths to pay media outlets.
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