Google said Thursday it will remove Canadian news content from its search, news and discover products after a new law meant to compensate media outlets comes into force.
The move to pull news from the world’s most popular search engine could have a devastating impact on Canadian media outlets, which often depend on third parties like Google to get content into the hands of readers.
The decision comes after the government’s contentious C-18 legislation passed Parliament last week. The bill has been criticized by tech giants like Meta and Google who say it’s unfair to impose what amounts to a tax on links.
Some smaller media outlets and experts have blasted the regime because they claim the bulk of the financial benefits will accrue to a handful of a large media players.
“We’re disappointed it has come to this. We don’t take this decision or its impacts lightly and believe it’s important to be transparent with Canadian publishers and our users as early as possible,” said Kent Walker, the president of global affairs at Google and Alphabet.
“The unprecedented decision to put a price on links (a so-called ‘link tax’) creates uncertainty for our products and exposes us to uncapped financial liability simply for facilitating Canadians’ access to news from Canadian publishers.”
The government and larger media outlets, including the newspaper lobby group and broadcasters like the CBC and CTV, have said social media companies should compensate news outlets for the use of their content.
‘Deeply irresponsible’
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez suggested Thursday he has no intention of backing down from this fight with the American web giants that control so much of what Canadians read and watch.
“Big tech would rather spend money to change their platforms to block Canadians from accessing good quality and local news instead of paying their fair share to news organizations,” Rodriguez said in a statement.
Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez called Google’s decision to eventually move Canadian news content from its site a “deeply irresponsible” move. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
“This shows how deeply irresponsible and out of touch they are, especially when they make billions of dollars off of Canadian users. Canada needs to have a strong, free and independent press. It’s fundamental to our democracy.”
Rodriguez added in an interview with CBC News that he was surprised by Google’s statement because the government’s talks with the company are ongoing.
“We’re still having conversations with Google as recent at this morning,” he said. “Google knows very well that the clarity they need is coming soon through regulation.”
Just yesterday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government was confident Google would come around on the legislation.
“I will say the conversations with Google are ongoing. It is important that we find a way to ensure that Canadians can continue to access content in all sorts of ways but also that we protect rigorous independent journalism that has a foundational role in our democracies,” he said.
“We know that democracies only work with a strong independent diverse media and we will continue to work for that.”
Trudeau says he’s ‘disappointed’ with Meta’s threat to end access to news on Facebook, Instagram
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government will continue to work with social media giants to ‘ensure that Canadians can continue to function online in free and open ways.’
Meta already has said it will block Canadian news content on popular platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Trudeau called Meta’s decision “extremely disappointing.”
“Facebook continues to refuse to accept its responsibility towards our democracy by refusing to pay its fair share,” Trudeau said.
The bill has been pitched as a way to keep news outlets solvent after advertising moved en masse to digital platforms, virtually wiping out a major revenue stream for journalism.
The dominance over advertising once enjoyed by legacy media is over. Google and Facebook have a combined 80 per cent share of all online ad revenue in Canada and rake in an eye-popping $9.7 billion a year, according to government data.
According to government figures, more than 450 news outlets in Canada have closed since 2008 and at least one third of Canadian journalism jobs have disappeared over that same time period.
Print and digital news businesses have struggled to make money from their content after losing major revenue streams, such as classified ads and subscriptions.
In an era of cord-cutting, some private and public broadcasters also have failed to adequately monetize their airwaves to pay for local, regional and national radio and TV news.
After years of losing money, Bell Media-owned CTV recently announced deep cuts, essentially closing the company’s foreign bureaus and downsizing their footprint in Ottawa and Washington, D.C.
Pointing to layoffs and a struggling news industry, Rodriguez said Thursday “the status quo is not working.” He said the new legislation is meant to “level the playing field by putting the power of big tech in check.”
In an attempt to reverse the revenue decline, the government’s new regulatory regime will require companies like Google and the Meta-owned Facebook — and other major online platforms that reproduce or facilitate access to news content — to either pay to post content or go through a binding arbitration process led by an arms-length regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
An outlet will be considered an eligible news business if it regularly employs two or more journalists in Canada, operates largely within Canada and produces content that is edited and designed in this country.
Google and Meta have signalled they’d rather get out of the news-posting business altogether rather than deal with this process.
In a separate statement, a spokesperson for Google Canada said the government’s legislation “will make it harder for Canadians to find news online, make it harder for journalists to reach their audiences, and reduce valuable free web traffic to Canadian publishers.”
But Google signalled it may be willing to change course if the government addresses some of its concerns.
“We hope that the government will be able to outline a viable path forward,” said Google spokesperson Shay Pardy.
CBC/Radio-Canada could be a beneficiary of this new federal program because it operates one of the largest news sites in the country and links to its content are regularly shared on other platforms.
Under the new law, CBC is required to provide an annual report on any compensation for news it receives from digital operators.
“We all depend on an open Internet. It would be unfortunate if the digital platforms used their dominance to deny Canadians access to news and information. We encourage Canadians to go directly to the websites and apps they trust for their news,” said Leon Mar, a spokesperson for CBC/Radio Canada.
OpenMedia, an advocacy group that has attacked the bill in the past, said Thursday that Google’s decision is “exactly what we warned Heritage Minister [Pablo] Rodriguez about.”
“Unfortunately, the way this bill was written made news blocking inevitable,” said Matt Hatfield, the group’s campaigns director.
“Instead of building a much-needed sustainable funding model that would support quality and diverse news, C-18’s failures will make it even more difficult for Canadians to access the news they need on the platforms they use.”
Michael Geist is a Canada research chair in internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa and a fierce critic of the bill.
He said Rodriguez, the minister who shepherded this legislation through Parliament, “did not take risks of the flawed Bill C-18 seriously.”
Geist said the minister is “squarely to blame” for Google’s decision, which risks imperilling an already fragile industry.
“Cannot overstate the harm from this: news sector loses hundreds of millions, Canadians face degraded search results, and prominence of low-quality sources increase,” Geist tweeted.
In a media statement, the NDP was scathing in its criticism of Google.
The party’s heritage critic, Peter Julian, said “multibillionaire web giants” like Google and Meta are “playing games” with the future of Canadian media, something he called a “shameful” practice akin to “bullying.”
“When the time comes to draw the line and ask them to pay their fair share, Meta and Google resort to bullying tactics showing Canadians their true colours: if they don’t like the rules, they won’t follow them — even if those rules are in place to protect good quality journalism and Canadians,” Julian said.
NDP MP Peter Julian speaks to reporters in the foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Julian issued a scathing statement on Google’s decision to remove Canadian news, saying the move was bullying. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
Julian said the same companies now threatening to block news content have been slow to root out the disinformation and “hate speech” that regularly circulates on their platforms.
They’re throwing their weight around now, Julian said, and trying to stop a bill that “enhances fairness in the news market.”
“It’s ironic to see these ultra-rich web giants act so fast to block reliable news information from Canadians when they don’t get their way, and yet are not as eager to stop the festering hate speech on their platforms,” he said.
LONDON (AP) — A British ban on protesting outside abortion clinics went into effect on Thursday, though it left a question mark over whether anti-abortion demonstrators who pray silently will be breaking the law.
The law, which applies to England and Wales, bars protests within 150 meters (164 yards) of clinics. Scotland and Northern Ireland, which make their own health policies, recently enacted similar bans.
The new rules make it an offense to obstruct someone using abortion services, “intentionally or recklessly” influence their decision, or cause “harassment, alarm or distress.” Offenders face a fine, with no upper limit.
The buffer zone rule was passed 18 months ago as part of the previous Conservative government’s Public Order Act, but wrangling over whether it would apply to silent prayer protests, and a change in government in July, have delayed it taking effect.
The Crown Prosecution Service says silent prayer near an abortion clinic “will not necessarily commit a criminal offense,” and police say they will assess each case individually.
Anti-abortion campaigners and religious groups argue that banning silent-prayer protests would be an affront to freedom of religion. But pro-choice campaigners say silent anti-abortion demonstrators are often intimidating to women entering clinics.
“It’s difficult to see how anyone choosing to perform their prayers right outside an abortion clinic could argue they aren’t attempting to influence people — and there are countless testimonies from women who say this makes them feel distressed,” said Louise McCudden, U.K. head of external affairs at MSI Reproductive Choices, one of Britain’s biggest abortion providers.
In March 2023, lawmakers rejected a change to the legislation proposed by some conservative legislators that would have explicitly allowed silent prayer within the buffer zones. The final rules are a potentially messy compromise that is likely to be tested in court.
Crime and Policing Minister Diana Johnson said she was “confident that the safeguards we have put in place today will have a genuine impact in helping women feel safer and empowered to access the vital services they need.”
But Bishop John Sherrington of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said the government had “taken an unnecessary and disproportionate step backwards” on religious freedom.
“Religious freedom includes the right to manifest one’s private beliefs in public through witness, prayer and charitable outreach, including outside abortion facilities,” he said.
Abortion is not as divisive an issue in the U.K. as in the U.S., where women’s access to terminations has been rolled back, and banned in some states, since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling in 2022.
Abortion was partly legalized in Britain by the 1967 Abortion Act, which allows abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy if two doctors approve. Later abortions are allowed in some circumstances, including danger to the mother’s life.
But women who have abortions after 24 weeks in England and Wales can be prosecuted under the 1861 Offenses Against the Person Act. Last year a 45-year-old woman in England was sentenced to 28 months in prison for ordering abortion pills online to induce a miscarriage when she was 32 to 34 weeks pregnant. After an outcry, her sentence was reduced.
PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) — Google Maps is heading down a new road steered by artificial intelligence.
The shift announced Thursday will bring more of the revolutionary AI technology that Google already has been baking into its dominant search engine to the digital maps service that the internet company launched nearly 20 years ago as part of its efforts to expand into new frontiers.
Google Maps recently surpassed 2 billion monthly users worldwide for the first time, a milestone that illustrates how dependent people have become on the service’s directions during their daily commutes and excursions to new places. With the introduction of Google’s AI-powered Gemini technology, the maps are now being set up to become entertainment guides in addition to navigational tools.
Starting this week in the U.S. only, users will be able to converse with Google Maps to ask for tips on things to do around specific spots in a neighborhood or city and receive lists of restaurants, bars and other nearby attractions that include reviews that have been compiled through the years. The new features will also provide more detailed information about parking options near a designated destination along with walking directions for a user to check after departing the car.
“We are entering a new era of maps,” Miriam Daniel, general manager of Google Maps, told reporters Wednesday during a preview of the features presented in Palo Alto, California. “We are transforming how you navigate and explore the world.”
Google Maps also is trying to address complaints by introducing more detailed imagery that will make it easier to see which lane of the road to be situated in well ahead of having to make a turn.
In another AI twist, Google Maps is going to allow outside developers to tap into the language models underlying its Gemini technology to enable pose questions about specific destinations, such as apartments or restaurants, and get their queries answered within seconds. Google says this new feature, which initially will go through a testing phase, has undergone a fact-checking procedure that it calls “grounding.”
Google’s Waze maps, which focus exclusively on real-time driving directions, will use AI to offer a conversational way for its roughly 180 million monthly users to announce hazards in the road and other problems that could affect traveling times.
The decision to bring AI into a service that so many rely upon to get from one point to the next reflects Google’s growing confidence in its ability to prevent its Gemini technology from providing false or misleading information, also known as “hallucinations,” to users. Google’s AI has already been caught hallucinating in some of the summaries that began rolling in May, including advice to put glue on pizza and an assertion that the fourth U.S. president, James Madison, graduated from the University of Wisconsin, located in a city named after him.
Bridget Carleton was in Minneapolis this summer when a WNBA fan stopped her on the street. The fan rolled up a sleeve to reveal a tattoo of Carleton’s name and her Minnesota Lynx jersey number on their arm.
For the Canadian, it was just another example of the league’s growing popularity in its most successful season ever.
“The passion these fans have, it’s been a lot of fun,” said Carleton of the fan’s ink. “I feel like, especially in women’s sports, fans can be connected to us on a different level because we put ourselves out there.
“We try to show our personalities, be more than just the athletes we are. I think that’s what’s special about it and they get to know us.”
The WNBA reached new highs in 2024 on and off the court.
It started with a hotly anticipated draft where NCAA scoring sensation Caitlin Clark was selected first overall by the Indiana Fever. The Chicago Sky took rebounding wiz Angel Reese seventh overall in that same draft, which American sports broadcaster ESPN said averaged 2.4 million viewers, up 328 per cent over 2023 to become the most-viewed WNBA Draft ever.
May’s announcement of a new franchise based in Toronto generated more buzz in Canada before the WNBA’s season had begun.
Although the as-yet-unnamed Toronto franchise won’t play until 2026, the WNBA reports that regular-season viewership in Canada was up 148 per cent year over year.
The second annual WNBA Canada Game a pre-season exhibition held on May 5 in Edmonton, featured a sellout crowd for the second consecutive year. Viewership of the second Canada Game was up 65 per cent in Canada over the 2023 edition in Toronto.
The excitement continued on the court as Las Vegas Aces centre A’ja Wilson set a new WNBA record with 26.9 points per game, Reese set the new rebounding mark with 13.1 per game, and Clark fed into a rivalry with Reese over rookie of the year honours with a league-best 8.4 assists per game.
Ultimately, Clark won the rookie of the year award after Reese’s season ended early with a hairline fracture in her wrist.
ESPN reported several new ratings highs, including the most-viewed regular season ever across its platforms, averaging 1.2 million viewers per game in the United States, up 170 per cent over 2023.
When Clark’s Fever played Reese’s Sky on June 23 it was the most-watched regular-season game in WNBA history, averaging 2.3 million viewers.
Carleton, playing her sixth WNBA season, felt that excitement.
“Arenas all across the country were sold out consistently the playoffs were just another level of energy and excitement in every single building,” she said on Wednesday from her home in Chatham-Kent, Ont. “You felt it on social media, even in the cities, walking around on the street where two, three years ago, I probably wouldn’t have gotten recognized.
“Now it’s hard to go out in public without at least one or two people noticing me or saying ‘hey, good game last night,’ things like that. It’s so fun to be a part of this wave.”
Carleton averaged a career-high 29.9 minutes per game for Minnesota, scoring 9.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.2 assists and a steal per game. She finished third in voting for the league’s Most Improved Player Award, helping the Lynx (30-10) reach the playoffs for a 15th time.
“Getting a solid opportunity this year to be a consistent starter and play significant minutes was just a credit, I think, to all the hard work I put in and being the player I can be,” said Carleton. “I’m really proud of how far I’ve come as a professional and I think this year was a good showing of that.”
Carleton kept contributing in the post-season, making two clutch free throws with two seconds left in the fourth quarter as Minnesota forced a decisive Game 5 of the WNBA Finals on Oct. 18 by beating the New York Liberty 82-80.
That winner-take-all finale also drew record numbers of viewers with ESPN reporting that WNBA Finals Presented by YouTube TV was the most-watched Finals in the league’s 25 years, averaging 1.6 million viewers, up 115 per cent over 2023.
Each telecast in the five-game series averaged more than a million American viewers, with Games 3, 4, and 5 each becoming the most-viewed WNBA Finals games ever on U.S. cable.
“I think women’s basketball has been on the rise for a long time, and finally, we’re getting the recognition we deserve,” said Carleton. “People just gave us a chance finally, and they obviously love the product and are sticking to it.
“It’s been so much fun. Definitely, it’s fun to see the growth, to get to where we are now.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2024.
