Canada’s Online News Law requires Meta and Google to pay media outlets for news

The Canada Government has passed a bill that will require Google and Meta to pay media outlets for news content that they share or repurposed on their platforms, according to a report by AP.

The bill which will soon become a law saw an amid a standoff between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government and Silicon Valley tech giants.

The report states that “The law creates a level playing field between online advertising giants and the shrinking news industry. And Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez has promised to push back on what he describes as “threats” from Facebook and Google to remove journalism from their platforms.”

With this development, Meta has confirmed that they will compy with the bill by ending news availability on Facebook and Instagram for its Canadian users. The company has not announced an particular timeline for this move.

Tech giants including Meta and Google have been blamed in the past for disrupting and dominating the advertising industry, eclipsing smaller, traditional players.

With this Online News Act it will require both companies to enter into agreements with news publishers to pay them for news content that appears on their sites if it helps the tech giants generate money.