Facebook may not let you read this story in Canada
Erin Scott/Reuters
- Facebook and Google really don't want to have to pay to use news stories.
- The tech giants are now planning to block access to news in Canada in response to a potential new law.
- The Canadian law would force Facebook and Google to pay news organizations to distribute content.
Facebook and Google, which thrive on distributing the content of others without paying for it, are freaked out about a proposed Canadian law that could soon threaten that savvy business model.
Canadian lawmakers could pass the Online News Act as soon as the end of the month.
The bill would require companies like Google and Facebook to pay news organizations in order to share their content on your newsfeeds and search results. Government officials behind the bill said the law would maintain "press independence and market innovation online."
Facebook and Google aren't happy.
The tech giants are now contorting themselves to find a way around the law before it passes.
Facebook announced this week it would start testing a system to block access to news on its platform. Facebook's parent company, Meta, said it is prepared to block all access to news on its platform in Canada if the bill passes. Google already announced it was testing the same thing.
This isn't the first time the corporate behemoths have faced this kind of threat to their business model. Australia passed a similar law in 2021; in response, Facebook shut down access to news on its platform in Australia.
That lasted a full six days before Facebook capitulated and signed agreements with three major Australian news companies. Facebook now pays those organizations for their content. Google also struck deals with Australian publishers.
"Global tech giants are changing the world, but we can't let them run the world," Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters at the time. "People in free societies like Australia, who go to ballot boxes and who go and they vote, that's who should run the world."