Author of the article: Date of publication: 27 Apr 2022 • 3 hours ago • 2 minutes reading • 101 comments The Minister of Canadian Heritage of Canada Pablo Rodriguez. Photo by BLAIR GABLE / REUTERS
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Cultural Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez told Meta that the company that owns Facebook did not rule out the possibility of banning Canadians from viewing and sharing news on the social network.
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The Liberal government introduced a bill earlier this month that would force digital giants to compensate news outlets for republishing their work. Canada’s bill to support the news industry is based on a law in Australia, where Facebook introduced a temporary ban on displaying and sharing news on its website last year in protest of the bill. A Meta Canada official did not rule out a similar response here when he was pressed for a parliamentary committee on Tuesday. Rodriguez said he did not expect it to be popular with Canadians. “They made the same threat in Australia and remained at the end of the day,” Rodriguez told reporters Wednesday ahead of a meeting of the Liberal Parliamentary Group. “It was not well received by the Australian people and I do not think it was well received by the Canadian people.
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“What we are saying here is that journalism has value,” he added. “Platforms benefit from this. It is fair for the news agencies to compensate. “ Paul Deegan, president and CEO of News Media Canada, a media advocacy group, said access to news was vital. “Canadians will not be intimidated by intimidation by monopolists. These tactics confirm the need for MEPs to pass this vital legislation in the coming weeks. “We are in the middle of a global pandemic and Ontarians are heading to the polls and Canadians need access to reliable news sources,” Deegan said. Meta Canada’s Rachel Curran was asked directly by the Commons public safety committee on Tuesday if the ban was out of the question. “We are still considering all options based on our assessment of the legislation,” Curran said.
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Curran told the committee that the tech giant did not know the “scope” of the legislation until it was tabled and that it had “some pretty serious concerns”. He also said that the company “was not consulted” about the content of the Liberal legislation. Rodriguez said that was not true. “They lied,” he told reporters in French. “Facebook told the committee yesterday that they had not been consulted, which is not true,” he added. He said he had met with Meta in person on February 10 and that his staff spoke regularly with the company. He said Meta had not seen the bill before it was submitted to the House of Commons, which is in line with parliamentary procedures, but was asked to consult the company along with other social media platforms. “It simply came to our notice then. The door is open. “We are ready to discuss,” he said. Meta was not immediately available for comment on Rodriguez’s comments on Wednesday. – With additional reports from the Canadian press and Reuters
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