Skip to main content

Bill C-18: Why and what

Share:

You may have heard or already been affected by Meta and Google blocking Canadian news online in response to Bill C-18.

No, that does not mean that news is being censored in Canada. It means that for an indeterminate period of time (until an agreement is struck) news won’t automatically appear on your Facebook or Instagram feed. You will have to count on other platforms or go directly to the source instead.

But do you know why this is happening and why Bill C-18 was drawn in the first place? Canada isn’t the first place where news has been blocked in such a way and is unlikely to be the last as governments worldwide are locking horns with news aggregators like Meta and Google.

Whether you agree that the law would achieve what it intended to do or not, it’s important to understand the context in which it is happening.

It’s also a good opportunity to reconsider our news consumption habits. Check out some tips on the last slide.

 

Share our original Tweet!

View our original Instagram Post!

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

A post shared by ScienceUpFirst (@scienceupfirst)

Sources
  1. Bill C-18: An Act respecting online communications platforms that make news content available to persons in Canada
  2. Changes to News Availability on Our Platforms in Canada
  3. Meta to pull news from Facebook and Instagram in Canada
  4. Google to remove news links in Canada in response to online news law
  5. An update on Canada’s Bill C-18 and our Search and News products
  6. Bill C-18 impacts small Canadian markets
  7. Newspapers in Times of Low Advertising Revenues
  8. Online News Act could see Google, Meta pay combined $230 million to Canadian media
  9. Trends and Facts on Newspapers. State of the News Media
  10. Google and Facebook take 80% of all digital ad spend in Canada: CMCRP
  11. Meta threatens to pull news content in California if law to pay publishers passes
  12. Could charging Big Tech a ‘journalism usage fee’ help save local news?
  13. California bill requiring Big Tech to pay for news placed on hold until 2024
  14. Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code led the world. It’s time to finish what we started
  15. Australian media thrives after forcing Big Tech to pay for content
  16. Google paying more than 300 EU publishers for news, more to come
  17. Google to pay over 300 European news publishers for content
  18. Google is paying more than 300 publishers in the EU for news with more on the horizon
  19. France fines Google $593 million for not negotiating ‘in good faith’ with news publishers.
  20. France fines Google 500 mln euros over copyright row
  21. Google fined 500 million euros in France in news copyright row
  22. Overview and key findings of the 2023 Digital News Report
  23. Sorting Fact from Fiction