Most Canadians concerned about losing access to news because of Bill C-18: survey

The majority of Canadians are worried about losing access to news on their go-to platforms as the Liberal government and Big Tech debate Bill C-18, according to a new survey.

Last month, Bill C-18 became law in Canada. The bill, commonly known as the Online News Act, requires companies such as Meta and Google to compensate Canadian media publications for making news content available on their platforms.

Although the law is not yet in effect, Meta and Google immediately responded by saying they will block Canadian news content from their websites, as per their warning issued while the bill was being discussed.

Now, Canadians are concerned about what this means for their news consumption with some pushing back against the bill, according to a new report from the Angus Reid Institute.

According to the report, 61 per cent of Canadians, agree tech companies should compensate Canadian news organizations for their content. However, a similar amount, 63 per cent, are concerned about losing access to Canadian news on their go-to platforms like Facebook and Google. As a result, about 49 per cent say the federal government should “back down” in its battle against the tech giants, 26 per cent say they should “stand firm” and 25 per cent are unsure about the best path forward.