Google and Meta’s fight against the Online News Act may not really be all about Canada.
Driving the news: The companies’ goal in trying to quash a new Canadian law that requires them to pay news publishers for linking to their content is to prevent it from setting a global precedent that will embolden other nations to do the same, industry experts told Bloomberg.
- “It’s a proxy battle for them,” per one media industry CEO, “Whatever they do in Canada, they’re probably doing it more for their public policy interests [elsewhere.]”
Other governments are also looking to make Big Tech pay up for the news.
- California’s Journalism Preservation Act—similar in structure to the Online News Act—passed its State Assembly last month and moved on to the Senate.
- The UK introduced the Digital Markets, Competition, and Consumers Bill in April, including laws forcing platforms to pay for the content they benefit from.
- Indonesia crafted the first draft of a new law that would let media outlets seek payments from digital platforms back in February.
Google and Meta have fought against these developments—pressuring governments, threatening to pull news content, and running lobbying campaigns against the measures.
Why it matters: The outcome of the Canadian news beef—be it both sides amicably reaching an agreement or Meta and Google making real on their threats to permaban Canadian news content in Canada—could set the stage for the future of digital news.—QH