Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez says he won’t be pushed around by Google and Facebook in the ongoing fight over C-18, the Online News Act.
“They’re superpowers. They’re huge. They’re rich, powerful. Lots of big lawyers. They can be intimidating,” Rodriguez told reporters this week at a news conference convened to announce that the federal government would be suspending its advertising on Facebook and Instagram.
“But are we going to let ourselves be intimidated? We can’t.”
In fact, Rodriguez has framed this refusal to be intimidated in rather existential terms.
“We cannot have tech giants as powerful as they are, with big lawyers and everything, coming here and telling members of Parliament and the government elected by the people, ‘This is what you’re going to do,'” he told CTV last week. “We can’t accept that. We’re a sovereign nation.”
WATCH: Federal government suspends advertising on Facebook, Instagram
Federal government suspends ads on Facebook and Instagram
3 days ago
Duration 2:12
The federal government says it is suspending advertising on Facebook and Instagram, the latest move in a battle over the Online News Act. The new law compels digital platforms to pay news organizations when users access news content through its platforms.
Thing is, if you have to insist you won’t be intimidated, it’s probably because there’s a reason to believe you could be intimidated. And that’s the basic problem facing both the Liberal government and the Canadian media industry — they find themselves in a spot where the major Internet platforms are able to exert significant pressure on them.
On a fundamental level, the fight over C-18 isn’t really about journalism. It’s about power.
This week on Cross Country Checkup, our Ask Me Anything focuses on Google and Meta’s plan to eventually remove links to Canadian journalism in response to the federal government’s Online News Act. Fill out the details on this form to get your questions in early.
Our changing relationship with Big Tech
The Trudeau government may very well relish the idea of a fight with powerful global entities. At a news conference on Thursday, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland referred to the government’s antagonists as “American tech giants” — and neither the first nor the third words seemed accidental.
It wasn’t so long ago that the major social media platforms were celebrated — or at least respected — for the communication and innovation they facilitated. Their creators were treated like oracles. Few, if any, major political or media figures failed to embrace the social-media era. Google’s parent company nearly built its own neighbourhood in Toronto.
But the days when Trudeau would appear beside Sheryl Sandberg — the former Facebook executive — for photo ops and chats about gender equality now seem like ancient history.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau chats with Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, during a bilateral meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 20, 2016. (Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)
The United States presidential election in 2016 imposed a reality check on the actual potential of these platforms. What followed was a push to deal with a series of related problems: misinformation, disinformation, “online harms,” foreign interference and the financial difficulties of the traditional news industry.
(The last nine months at Twitter have also served as a reminder of how much any given social media platform ultimately operates at the whim of the billionaire who owns it.)
Whether the Online News Act takes the exactly right approach to addressing the last of those problems or not, it exists downstream from the real issue — the dominance over digital advertising that Google and Facebook have been allowed to achieve. The best that might be said for the legislation is that it could represent a “stopgap” solution for the industry, buying it some time to adapt.
(CBC/Radio-Canada’s corporate position is that the Online News Act will help level the playing field and contribute to a healthy news ecosystem in Canada.)
The American media industry is belatedly realizing that chasing the viral Internet traffic social-media platforms can generate was ultimately a fool’s errand. But as the fight over C-18 makes clear, that traffic also gave a platform like Facebook an incredible amount of power — power it is now wielding by blocking Canadian news.
The lesson might simply be that, no matter how much fun the apps are, allowing individual corporate entities to accumulate so much unchecked power always comes with downsides.
That power was on display even as the federal government was announcing its advertising suspension.
After Rodriguez announced the move, a reporter asked if the Liberal Party would suspend its own advertising on Facebook. Rodriguez deferred — he was speaking as heritage minister for the government, he said, not as a representative of the party. But it soon became clear the party would not be pulling its ads.
If Trudeau really believes Meta is threatening democracy—he must do a full boycott. No more posts or Liberal Party ads. Go cold turkey.<br><br>It is a small price to pay to save our entire democracy. <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/ItsAllAnAct?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#ItsAllAnAct</a>
Never one to turn down an opportunity to make hay, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre took to Twitter on Thursday night to challenge the Liberal Party to put its money where its mouth is and avoid the platform entirely. Poilievre’s party opposes C-18 and isn’t pulling its own ads. And both he and the Liberal Party surely understand that a suspension of Liberal ads would amount to unilateral disarmament.
The unique and expansive access to Canadians that Facebook provides — the political value of advertising on the platform — likely means that the Liberal Party can’t afford to abandon it. At least not unless every other party is willing to do likewise.
Facebook and Google may be taking a tough stance with the Canadian government because they fear the power of precedent — if Canada succeeds, other (bigger, more cost-intensive) countries might follow suit. But the vocal public support the Trudeau government is getting from American and British politicians might suggest other legislators realize what a challenge they’re up against.
The Online News Act may or may not play a useful role in fostering a healthier media ecosystem in Canada. But the legislation is ultimately the result of how deeply embedded private companies like Google and Facebook have become in democratic life.
Tim Houston, who is seeking a second term as Nova Scotia premier, said he had no plans to invite Poilievre to join him on the campaign ahead of the Nov. 26 provincial election. He explained the provincial Progressive Conservatives have no formal ties with the Tories in Ottawa — and he made a point of saying he is not a member of the federal party. Experts say it also is because the latest polls suggest Atlantic Canadians have not warmed to Poilievre. (Nov. 5, 2024)
CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) — It has been a rough few days for Clemson coach Dabo Swinney. First, his 19th-ranked Tigers lost to Louisville on Saturday night, then he was told he couldn’t vote Tuesday at his polling place.
Swinney, whose given name is William, explained that the voting system had locked him out, saying a “William Swinney” had already voted last week. Swinney said it was his oldest son, Will, and not him.
“They done voted me out of the state,” Swinney said. “We’re 6-2 and 5-1 (in the Atlantic Coast Conference), man. They done shipped me off.”
Dabo Swinney had to complete a paper ballot and was told there will be a hearing on Friday to resolve the issue.
“I was trying to do my best and be a good citizen and go vote,” he said. “Sometimes doing your best ain’t good enough. You have to keep going though, keep figuring it out.”
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EDMONTON – The judge leading a fatality inquiry into the knockout death of a boxer is recommending changes to how the sport is regulated and how head injuries are monitored.
Timothy Hague, who was 34, competed in a boxing match licensed by the Edmonton Combative Sports Commission in June 2017 when his opponent, Adam Braidwood, knocked him unconscious.
Hague came to and was able to walk to the dressing room, where he vomited, and was then taken to hospital where he underwent surgery for a large brain bleed.
His condition did not improve, care was withdrawn and Hague died two days after the fight.
Justice Carrie Sharpe with Alberta’s provincial court made 14 recommendations, including that combat sports be overseen by a provincial authority instead of a patchwork of municipal bodies and that there be concussion spotters at every event.
She also recommends that if a fighter receives a blow to the head in a technical knockout, they must provide a brain scan to prove they are fit to compete again.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
