The Trudeau government’s Bill C-18 the Online News Act passed through the Senate on Thursday, including an amendment proposed by the Western Standard’s Publisher Derek Fildebrandt. . Google .During testimony before the Senate Transportation and Communications committee, Fildebrandt asked for the bill to be “opt-in” so news organizations such as the Western Standard do not lose the traffic they receive from those platforms if the Big Tech companies decide to block Canadian news..“Please amend this bill to make it explicitly 'opt-in,' so that only media that want to partake in this shakedown are included,” asked Fildebrandt..READ MORE Fildebrandt testifies before Senate about gov’t interference in news media.Sen. Donna Dasko (ON), who Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed, introduced the “opt-in” amendment and passed the third reading in the Senate. .Sen. Leo Housakos (QC) said there are successful online independent news media. He mentioned the Western Standard and Blacklock’s Reporter as examples of successful media companies thriving in the “current news media landscape.”.“They're a huge success story. The Western Standard, there's so so so many out there and I don't want to miss any. But Blacklock’s is another. They are a subscription paper, online and digital. They're doing as well as ever,” said Housakos..Housakos told the Senate that many witnesses testified to the amount of traffic they receive through the Big Tech platforms, which could disappear immediately from passing Bill C-18..“We had witnesses that came before the committee, including print associations that represent journalists in this country that say thanks to Meta, their traffic is up as much as 31% to 33%,” said Housakos..“All of us know the only way you make money, I don't care if you're a journalist or if you're selling hot dogs or if you're a local gas station. You need traffic. You need people to get traffic.”.To test potential responses to Bill C-18, Google has blocked news content for some Canadian users and has said it may block news content as a response to Bill C-18. . Facebook signFacebook sign .Meta is conducting a test for most of June, which will temporarily block news content for approximately 5% of its Canadian users. The goal is to develop an “effective product solution to end news availability in Canada” to comply with Bill C-18 if it becomes law..Bill C-18 would mandate Big Tech companies to pay Canadian news media companies for using their news content on their platforms. The bill was introduced in June 2022 in the House of Commons..The bill proposes a new “bargaining framework” to help news media be fairly compensated when their content is used by Big Tech and generates revenue for them. .Non-compliance could lead to fines of up to $10 million for a first offence.
