Google to limit some Canadians from viewing news in response to Ottawa’s Bill C-18 – National | 24CA News

A spokesman for Google says the tech firm is obstructing some Canadian customers from viewing news content material in response to the Liberal authorities’s on-line news invoice.

The proposed Online News Act, also called Bill C-18, would require digital giants akin to Google and Meta, which owns Facebook, to barter offers that may compensate Canadian media corporations for republishing their content material on their platforms.

The firm says it’s limiting entry to news content material on-line to underneath 4 per cent of its Canadian customers of its merchandise, together with its common search engine and the Discover function on Android gadgets that carries news and sports activities tales.

The firm says all varieties of news content material are being affected by the take a look at, which can run for about 5 weeks, together with content material created by Canadian broadcasters and newspapers.

A spokeswoman for Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez says Canadians won’t be intimidated and known as it disappointing that Google is borrowing from Meta’s playbook.

That firm threatened to dam news off its web site final yr in response to the invoice.

“We’re briefly testing potential product responses to Bill C-18 that impact a very small percentage of Canadian users,” Google spokesman Shay Purdy stated in a written assertion on Wednesday.

The firm runs hundreds of assessments annually to evaluate any potential adjustments to its search engine, he added.

“We’ve been fully transparent about our concern that C-18 is overly broad and, if unchanged, could impact products Canadians use and rely on every day,” Purdy stated.

“We remain committed to supporting a sustainable future for news in Canada and offering solutions that fix Bill C-18.”

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