The Canadian government on Tuesday introduced a bill to force web giants such as Facebook and Google to make business deals with media outlets to pay them to broadcast their content.

“Thanks to this law, the giants of the web will have to be held accountable and help build a more equitable information ecosystem, one that supports independence and freedom of the press,” Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodríguez said in a statement. a press conference.

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The text aims to “ensure that the media and journalists receive fair compensation for their work,” the ministry said in a statement.

The bill, dubbed the “Online News Act”, is inspired by the bill passed by Australia in 2021, the first of its kind in the world.

According to the ministry, more than 450 Canadian media outlets have been closed since 2008, including more than 60 in the past two years.

The press accuses the Google group and other major platforms of profiting from their content without sharing the revenue they get from it.

To remedy this situation, the European Union introduced a “neighbouring right” in 2019 that should allow press publishers to receive compensation for the content used by online platforms.

The AFP At the end of 2021, it signed a “related rights” agreement with Google 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.