The Canadian government introduced a bill on Tuesday to allow web giants such as Facebook and Googleto enter into commercial agreements with the media to pay them for distributing their content.
“Thanks to this law, the web giants will be held accountable and help to create a more equitable information ecosystem, one that supports independence and freedom of the press,” Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodríguez said at a news conference.
The text aims to “ensure that the media and journalists receive fair compensation for their work,” the ministry said in a statement.
The bill called Law on the online news (Online News Act), is inspired by the law passed by Australia in 2021, the first of its kind in the world.
More of Since 2008, 450 Canadian media outlets have been shut downincluding more than 60 in the past two years alone, the ministry said.
The press accuses the Google group and other major platforms of profiting from their content without sharing the revenue they earn from it.
To resolve this situation, in 2019 the European Union introduced a “neighbouring right” that should allow press publishers to receive compensation for the content used by online platforms.
The AFP signed a “related rights” agreement with Google at the end of 2021 that reimburses the agency for five years for the content presented by the American giant, as well as two commercial contracts, also signed for five years.
