Episode description

If news can’t be searched for on Google or shared on Facebook, is it even really online? Bill C-18, the Online News Act, is currently before the senate. Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez says that this Bill will help save small newsrooms and local journalism outlets by giving them the power to negotiate with tech giants, deals for payment of news content that is shared on their platforms.

But Meta and Google’s response has been simple: they just won’t allow Canadian news on their platforms. In March, Google ran a test where one million Canadians could no longer see results for Canadian news searches. At the Canada Strong & Free conference in Ottawa last week, Meta said they would also disallow sharing of anything that looks like news on their sites, like Facebook and Instagram. 

Last year, Canadaland and a group of other independent news publishers formed a consortium to lobby the government on this Bill. Today, Jesse sits down again with Senator Paula Simons, as Publisher of Canadaland, to discuss the Bill and not just his own issues with it, but hers too.

Host: Jesse Brown

Credits: Tristan Capacchione (Audio Editor and Technical Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor)

Featured guests: Paula Simons

Further reading: 

• Canada’s Online News Act must be transparent, fair, and include news innovators — Canadaland, Publisher’s Note
• Bill C-18 - Parliament

Sponsors: Freshbooks, Public Service Alliance of Canada, Squarespace

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