Following in Australia’s footsteps, Canada wants Facebook to pay for the content it shares by Canadian publishers on its platform, Global News reported.
Since last year, Facebook began censoring and shutting down news that was considered to be “spreading misinformation” by the standards of their guidelines.
The company’s questionable regulations have sparked a global coalition of countries uniting to take it on for several reasons.
Australia proposed a legislation for Facebook and Google to pay fees to Australian publishers for sharing their news links. Since the proposal, Facebook blocked all Australian news content on its website.
Canadian Heritage Minister, Steven Guilbeault, proposed a similar legislation. Guilbeault said he suspects soon there will be 10 to15 countries adopting similar rules.
“Canada is at the forefront of this battle… we are really among the first group of countries around the world that are doing this,” Guilbealt told reporters.
Canadian media organizations said the Australian legislation would recoup C$620 million a year to its publishers. If the government does not intervene, Canada could lose 700 out of 3,100 print journalism jobs.
Earlier this month, Canadian newspapers published blank front pages to show what it would look like without the journalism industry.
Canadian newspapers publish blank front pages to demonstrate what could happen if big tech companies like Facebook continue to share other publishers work without compensation
Facebook said they will be restoring Australian news on its platform after reaching an agreement with the Australian government. After negotiations the Australian government agreed to a number of changes.
Facebook claims that the business gain from news is minimal, and that news makes up less than 4% of the content people see in their News Feed. However, it also stated that it helped Australian publishers generate $407 million last year.
⬡
Wiki Production Code: A0655
