Meta ‘out of touch’ to say news lacks economic value: Trudeau – National | 24CA News
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday mentioned Meta Platforms Inc’s opposition to proposed laws that may compel cost by its Facebook unit and different web firms for journalistic content material was primarily based on a flawed argument that news has no financial worth.
Speaking to a parliamentary committee concerning the Trudeau authorities’s laws on Monday, a Meta official mentioned news has a social worth, however not an financial worth to the corporate.
“If we are being asked to compensate these publishers for material that has no economic value to us, that’s where the problem is,” Meta’s head of public coverage in Canada, Rachel Curran, instructed the committee.
Trudeau on Tuesday mentioned, “that argument that the internet giants are putting forward is not just flawed, it’s dangerous to our democracy, to our economy.”
Facebook’s stance in opposition to paying news content material “shows how deeply irresponsible and out of touch they are,” Trudeau instructed reporters in Ottawa.
The laws, Bill C-18 or the “Online News Act,” proposes guidelines to drive platforms like Facebook and Alphabet’s Google to barter business offers and pay news publishers for his or her content material, a transfer much like a ground-breaking regulation handed in Australia in 2021.
Both Google and Meta have warned they would withdraw entry to news articles on their platforms in Canada if the invoice is handed into regulation with out amendments. Their essential objection is paying for hyperlinks to news articles posted on their web sites that they are saying could be unsustainable for his or her companies.
Facebook says hyperlinks to news articles make up lower than 3% of the content material on its customers’ feed, and that journalists profit from posting their work on the social media platform.
“Someone reporting on the horrors in Bucha (in Ukraine) is not trying to get likes on their Facebook page,” Trudeau mentioned.
