Trudeau pressurises ‘Meta’ to pay news agencies for publishing on Facebook

The Canadian government has updated its Online News Act with certain regulations before enacting it as a law starting from December 19th. As per the law, companies in the domain of technology having more than 20 million users, excluding multiple accounts registered by the same user and earning a revenue of more than 1 billion dollars on a yearly basis will be required to pay news agencies new agencies for posting links on their platforms. 

Google and Meta fall under the ambit of this definition. Google accepted the terms of the bill and would be compensating new agencies 100 million Canadian dollars on a yearly basis.Meta however are not willing to comply and has instead decided to prevent news sharing on Facebook and Instagram. “News outlets choose to use our free services because it helps their bottom line, and today's release of final regulations does not change our business decision,” said Rachel Curran, head of public policy for Meta Canada

The media organisations have by and large backed this decision by the government. “We will continue to push Meta, which makes billions of dollars in profits, even though it is refusing to invest in the journalistic rigour and stability of the media,” Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau stated.