Google says it may ‘assess’ future news access in Canada over Bill C-18
Global News
A Google executive told a Senate committee the company has shared its concerns with the government's online news bill for over a year, but those concerns have not been considered.
Google Canada has told senators that it would be reasonable to reconsider whether it shares links to news sites if the government’s online news bill becomes law, but it is not promising to block them.
Richard Gingras, the vice-president of the company’s news division, told a Senate committee Wednesday that Google has shared its concerns with the legislation for over a year.
Bill C-18 would require tech giants to pay Canadian media companies for linking to or otherwise repurposing their content online.
But Gingras said those concerns have not been considered and that recent amendments to the bill have made things worse in some cases.
Sen. Paula Simons called Gingras’s comments “rather conciliatory,” in light of the test it ran earlier this year.
Back in February, Google Canada ran a five-week test in which it limited access to news content for around four per cent of its Canadian users.
Critics called that a bully tactic at the time, and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters said it’s proof that global digital giants did not intend to play fair.
Gingras said the company hasn’t made a final decision on whether it will limit journalism links for Canadian users going forward. When Sen. Donna Dasko asked what the company will do if the bill passes in its current form, he said he does not have certainty.
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