Fb threatens to dam information content material over Canada’s revenue-sharing invoice By Reuters

By Ismail Shakil

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Fb (NASDAQ:) warned on Friday that it could block sharing of stories content material on its platform in Canada over issues about laws that might compel digital platforms to pay information publishers.

The On-line Information Act, launched in April, laid out guidelines to drive platforms like Meta’s Fb and Alphabet (NASDAQ:)’s Google to barter industrial offers and pay information publishers for his or her content material, in a transfer just like a ground-breaking regulation handed in Australia final yr.

The laws is into account at a parliamentary committee, to which the U.S. social media firm mentioned it has not been invited to share its issues.

“We consider the On-line Information Act misrepresents the connection between platforms and information publishers, and we name on the federal government to assessment its method,” Marc Dinsdale, head of media partnerships at Meta Canada, mentioned in a weblog publish.

“Within the face of opposed laws primarily based on false assumptions that defy the logic of how Fb operates, we consider it is necessary to be clear in regards to the chance that we could also be compelled to rethink permitting information content material sharing in Canada,” Dinsdale wrote.

Canada’s Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, who launched the invoice, mentioned in a press release on Friday that the federal government continued to have “constructive conversations” with Fb.

“All we’re asking the tech giants like Fb to do is negotiate honest offers with information shops once they revenue from their work,” Rodriguez mentioned in an emailed assertion.

The laws proposes that digital platforms which have a “bargaining imbalance” with information companies – measured by metrics like a agency’s world income – should make honest offers that might then be assessed by a regulator.

Dinsdale mentioned information content material was not a draw for Fb customers and didn’t convey important income to the corporate.

When Australia, which has led world efforts to rein within the powers of tech corporations, proposed laws forcing them to pay native media for information content material, Google threatened to shut its Australian search engine, whereas Fb lower all third-party content material from Australian accounts for greater than per week.

Each ultimately struck offers with Australian media corporations after a sequence of amendments to the laws have been provided.