>The legislative project is inspired by a similar law passed by Australia last year and will oblige internet giants to enter into commercial agreements with companies that generate informational content as compensation for the use of their material, Canadian media reported today.
Toronto (Canada).- The Canadian government has introduced a bill to allow companies such as Google or facebook pay the media to use their content on their digital platforms.
The legislative project is inspired by a similar law passed by Australia last year and will oblige internet giants to enter into commercial agreements with companies that generate informational content as compensation for the use of their material, Canadian media reported today.
If the bill is passed, the media will be able to collectively negotiate commercial agreements, allowing them to act “on fairer terms” against the tech giants.
But if the agreements are not reasonable, the Canadian Radiotelevision and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC for the English abbreviation) will, according to the requirements laid down in the bill, have the option to impose a fee to be paid by Internet companies.
The Canadian government has justified the bill’s presentation due to the crisis that has hit the information sector since the internet giants took over a significant portion of content distribution and ad capture.
Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodríguez pointed out during the bill’s presentation on Tuesday that more than 450 media outlets have been closed in Canada since 2008 and 60 have disappeared in the past two years.
In 2020, Internet advertising revenues reached 9.7 billion Canadian dollars (7.77 billion US dollars). 80% of this amount went to Alphabet and Meta, the parent companies of Google and facebookrespectively.
Rodríguez stressed that ad revenue has shifted from the media to these large platforms “which benefit from the dissemination of informational content”.
“A free and independent press is fundamental to our democracy,” Rodríguez said in a statement. The Canadian minister added that the health of the sector is at risk from the imbalance between the power of the tech giants and the communications companies.
