Canada to Require Tech Giants to Compensate News Publishers

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government introduced legislation on Tuesday that would require companies like the parents of Google and Facebook to pay Canadian media outlets for allowing links to news content on their platforms.

Canadian publishers, many of whom are struggling financially, have long pushed the government for such a measure, arguing that the advertising revenue that previously was the foundation of their businesses has overwhelmingly migrated to global online giants.

That pressure increased after Australia passed a similar measure in 2021 and Europe revised its copyright laws to compensate publishers.

The government did not immediately release the text of the bill which was presented to Parliament. So it was not immediately clear if it would affect a revenue sharing arrangement that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, reached with 18 Canadian publishers last fall.