So now it’s not just Facebook and Instagram news that’s on the line. If your federal government doesn’t come up with an elegant solution to the standoff it’s created with its internet restriction bills C-11 and C-18, Google is next. That is, there’ll be no more ‘googling’ what Mr. Trudeau said last night, or any other Canadian news from hockey scores to company reports on the financial pages..This was not supposed to happen. But it is, as law professor and occasional Western Standard contributor Michael Geist says, “a massive own-goal for the government,” if Google stops linking Canadian news. Canadians wanting to know what’s going on will be forced back to days before history, obliged to find out the old-fashioned way by reading a newspaper, listening to the radio or watching television..Liberals and NDP voters aren’t going to like that any more than Conservatives..What just happened here?. Michael GeistMichael Geist .It all started when legacy media decided that as social media platforms were circulating ‘their’ news, the platforms should pay a royalty. They went to the government and asked for legislation..The government, already giving out $600 million in media bailouts over five years, accepted their case and Bill C-18 was the result. More details here..But it wasn’t so simple..First, the legacy media have not recognized the service that Facebook and Google provide by expanding their readership. Their value as paper-carrier to the legacy media has not been accounted for..Second, the commitment required of Facebook and Google through the legislation is open-ended. Their revenue is not dependent upon the number of people searching; that however is precisely what would drive their financial obligation to the legacy media..It should surprise nobody therefore, that one by one, Meta and Google backed away..Earlier this week, head of public policy for Meta Canada Rachel Curran stated that the company was “proceeding towards ending the availability of news permanently in Canada,” and that notwithstanding suggestions by Heritage Canada Minister Pablo Rodriguez that negotiations were continuing as far as Meta was concerned, no talks at all were ongoing.. Rachel CurranMeta's Rachel Curran .At the time, some wondered why Google had not already joined Meta on the outside..On Thursday however, Google Global Affairs President Kent Walker announced on the company blog that it would remove links to Canadian news from its Search, News and Discover sections because of its opposition to Bill C-18, which would oblige platforms such as Google and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) to pay for carrying, and linking to, Canadian news..What took Google the extra few days?.Peter Menzies, a MacDonald-Laurier Institute fellow and one-time CRTC Commissioner comments, “My understanding is they [Google] were prepared to do this a week ago but after meeting with the PMO last Wednesday night, Minister Rodriguez called them in and prevented that by committing to work with them on a solution to their concerns. When they got something in writing it obviously disappointed them so similar to Meta, facing unlimited liability, pulled out as any responsible business would do.”.Evidently, Minister Rodriguez had been trying to recover something from the wreckage. But he, and we must assume his PMO handler — for nobody in this government acts without explicit PMO approval — didn’t understand the risks. Only when Meta and Google baled, did he (and they) realize that they were not posturing but expressing a genuine business concern..Leave it to the Liberals to create a debacle where the only options were bad ones, and everybody loses..For, everybody does. There will be no pot of gold for the legacy media, although as Tim Denton points out elsewhere, there were other, workable solutions. Meta and Google will survive but rather as a car dealer suffers a loss of business if forbidden to sell pickup trucks, they will lose revenue. Some news outlets that depend upon Meta and Google for distribution will likely be forced out of business.. Kent WalkerKent Walker .As for those Canadians who have learned to rely upon Google for a quick — as opposed to a laborious — search for information, they will be massively inconvenienced..Oddly the only people who might take some satisfaction from it all are the cynics on the second floor of the Langevin Block, where the PMO has long since dismissed the principles of an open Internet as an obsession of those with ‘unacceptable views’ and inimical to the kind of Canada Mr. Trudeau wants to create..For, at the end of the day, whoever suffers and whatever revenue and convenience is lost, the bills C-11 and C-18 do leave the government with what it wants more than anything: control of the Internet in Canada and especially of what Canadians are free to publish..For a Liberal, as second prize, it could be worse.
