Some reflections on the Australian experience and what they might mean for Canada.
After Google’s move on Thursday, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez sent a written statement calling the companies’ moves “deeply irresponsible and out of touch … especially when they make billions of dollars off of Canadian users” with advertising.
Australia’s regulatory experiment – the first of its kind in the world – also got off to a rocky start, but it has since seen tech companies, news publishers and the government reach a middle ground.
Google and Meta are not the internet. They think it belongs to them and act like it’s their kingdom. But they’re wrong.
In some countries, Facebook is used as a synonym for “the Internet” because large portions of the population access the web through Facebook.
The Canadian government is also not the Internet, and Canadians have no natural or legal rights to news access via Google or Meta.