OTTAWA — The Heritage minister’s parliamentary secretary accused Facebook of threatening Canadians’ safety, after the company said it could pull news off its platform in response to a bill that would force it to share revenue with news publishers.
“Facebook has stepped up again to threaten the well-being of Canadians, to threaten our safety, to threaten our information online,” Chris Bittle, the parliamentary secretary to Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez told reporters Tuesday.
Bill C-18, which is targeted at Google and Facebook parent company Meta, would force the tech giants to reach commercial deals with news publishers, under the threat of mandatory arbitration. The two companies could end up funding 30 per cent of the cost of producing news in Canada, the Parliamentary Budget Officer has estimated.
Google has been pushing for amendments to the legislation, and Meta has threatened to pull news off its platform in Canada, repeating that statement again at a parliamentary committee Friday.
