Canada tries to address Big Tech's Bill C-18 concerns, saying Google and Meta would pay publishers ~$126.6M and ~$44M per year; Meta plans to keep blocking news
Reuters
Context & Ripple Effects
Bill C-18 was introduced to require major platforms to negotiate compensation with publishers, following a policy model Canada explicitly compared with Australia. The dispute escalated when Google and Meta said they could withdraw access to news in Canada rather than participate.
Canada is now putting annual payment estimates around the policy's impact, but Meta had already begun removing news access from Facebook and Instagram in Canada. That makes the question less about the headline cost alone than whether mandated bargaining can preserve platform distribution for publishers.
First-order effects
Canada gives publishers and platforms concrete reference points for Bill C-18's expected annual payments: about $126.6 million from Google and $44 million from Meta.
Meta's planned news block remains in place, immediately limiting the law's ability to produce payments from Meta while reducing publishers' access to its Canadian audience.
Second-order effects
Publishers face a split outcome: potential compensation from a negotiated Google arrangement, but lost referral and discovery channels where Meta excludes news.
The differing responses increase pressure on Canada to show that the framework can secure publisher value without prompting platforms to remove news services.
Third-order effects
If platforms can avoid payment obligations by withdrawing news, news-link bargaining laws may become negotiations over whether platforms carry news at all, rather than simply over compensation.
The episode points to a broader test of whether governments can rebalance publisher-platform economics when platforms no longer treat news distribution as strategically necessary.
The trend: Platform-news regulation is shifting from pricing disputes toward a contest over platforms' willingness to continue carrying news under mandated payment regimes.
The idea that Google and Facebook should pay newspapers for sending traffic to them is so bizarre, and clearly just a lame excuse to try to get rich corporations to subsidize an industry facing financial hardship. But if that's the goal, just raise taxes on rich corporations and…
Gotta love Meta and Google standing up to bullies. Forcing big tech companies to bail out news publishers for dwindling public interest in news is clearly not the answer. But like you said this is not based on logic, systemic problems do not have a straight line answer.
Meta is clearly out of news sharing in Canada due to Bill C-18 given today's draft regs. Next big question: is Google prepared to pay 4% of search revenues for links to news? Because it won't be just Canada but will spread globally if it becomes standard. https://twitter.com/...
I often said there was no Plan B for Bill C-18 when blocked news links became reality. Now it appears there was no Plan A either. Government is making it up as it goes along: estimates jump by more than 50% in months, make up 4% link tax out of thin air. https://twitter.com/...
So what you're saying is that “numbers plucked from the wildest dreams of the people running legacy media outlets” is not a sound basis for formulating government policy?
The government increased the estimated revenues from Bill C-18 by more than 50% since last December. How? By establishing what amounts to a 4% link tax. If you are Google or Meta and you link to news, you must pay at least 4% of revenues in media deals. https://twitter.com/...
Setting aside the fanciful overvaluation of the actual value to platforms of linking to news, the idea that, say, the CBC should get a cut of any profit Google generates by linking to a New York Times article makes no sense whatsoever.
Where does 4% link tax come from? The Canadian government just made up. Never referenced during Bill C-18 study and not linked to news costs or value. Add in 3% DST + millions from Bill C-11 and risk of blocked news links in Canada just went up. https://mgeist.substack.com/ ...
Today, I am releasing our proposed regulations for the implementation of the Online News Act. This is a reasonable next step in our work to make sure news businesses are compensated fairly for their work. Take a look ⬇️ [image]