Facebook Warns That It May Block Canadian News Content if an “Adverse” Bill is Passed

The legislation is currently being considered by a parliamentary panel to which the U.S. social network company stated that it was not invited to voice its concerns.

Marc Dinsdale from Meta Canada’s media partnerships stated in a blog post that “we believe the Online News Act misrepresents news publishers and platforms, and we ask for the government to reconsider its approach.”

Dinsdale wrote, “In the face of adverse legislation that is based upon false assumptions that defy how Facebook operates logic, we believe that it’s important that we are transparent about the possibility of being forced to reconsider allowing Canadian news content sharing.”

Pablo Rodriguez, Canada’s Heritage Minister, introduced the bill.

He stated in a statement that Friday that the government continues to have “constructive discussions” with Facebook.

Rodriguez stated in an email statement that “all we ask the tech giants like Facebook is to negotiate fair deals with news outlets whenever they profit from their work.”

The legislation stipulates that any digital platform that has “bargaining inequalities” with news companies – as measured by metrics such as a firm’s global revenues – must negotiate fair deals, which would then be evaluated by a regulator.

Dinsdale stated that news content was not a major draw for Facebook users, and didn’t bring in significant revenue for the company.

Australia has been a leader in global efforts to limit the power of tech companies. Australia proposed legislation that required them to pay local media to provide news content. Google threatened to shut down its Australian search engine while Facebook removed all third-party content from Australian accounts.

After a series of amendments to the law was made, both parties eventually reached agreements with Australian media companies.