Facebook vs Australia - Canadian media could be the next target for ban singaporestar.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from singaporestar.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Author: Jean-Hugues Roy, Professeur, Ecole des medias, Universite du Quebec a Montreal (UQAM)
Shortly after Facebook nuked news from its platform in Australia, I spent an hour on the phone with Kevin Chan, head of public policy for Facebook, Inc., in Canada.
He told me he’s “working really hard to prevent that outcome in Canada.” In other words, if Ottawa follows Australia and tables a bill forcing tech giants to share revenue with the news business, Facebook would drop the A-bomb on Canadian journalism as well.
Chan would prefer to work out partnerships with Canadian journalism. He said Facebook gave $10 million to various news projects in the past four years. He pledged “in 2021, we’ll do quite a bit more.” But don’t put a gun to our head, he basically said, or we’ll fight back.
He told me he’s “working really hard to prevent that outcome in Canada.” In other words, if Ottawa follows Australia and tables a bill forcing tech giants to share revenue with the news business, Facebook would drop the A-bomb on Canadian journalism as well.
Chan would prefer to work out partnerships with Canadian journalism. He said Facebook gave $10 million to various news projects in the past four years. He pledged “in 2021, we’ll do quite a bit more.” But don’t put a gun to our head, he basically said, or we’ll fight back.
Render unto Caesar
I actually share many of Chan’s views. Here’s one. Last fall, the lobby group representing the news industry in Canada published a report
Regulating Facebook and Google: The growing global big tech backlash pressgazette.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from pressgazette.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Canadian publishers welcome Google Agreement to pay news organizations for content
Poll
Do you agree with the city’s decision to collapse certain advisory boards into one, nine-member Community Vibrancy Board?
Yes
An agreement signed by Google with French news organizations to pay publishers for their content is being welcomed as an important precedent by Canadian news publishers.
News Media Canada President John Hinds says Canadian publishers have been urging the Canadian government to force Google and Facebook to negotiate fair compensation for their use of news content, and the French agreement shows it can be done.
“This is the first time the platforms have agreed to compensate publishers for the use of their content. This establishes a precedent and supports our efforts for legislation in Canada to require the platforms to compensate publishers for the use of their content.”