Canada’s Bill C-18 Is an Inadvertent Blow to Censorship
Commentary
The Liberal government’s recently passed Online News Act, also known as Bill C-18, requires that tech giants like Google and Meta negotiate deals with Canadian media companies like Bell, Postmedia, and Torstar for the right to link to their Canadian content.
To Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s dismay, the tech giants are refusing to play ball. Saying they don’t value the right to link because links benefit the publishers but not them, they decided to neuter the law by vowing to block access to Canadian news content on their platforms when the law comes into effect.
“That argument that the internet giants are putting forward is not just flawed, it’s dangerous to our democracy and to our economy,” Trudeau said. “Putting aside the jobs and communities that are supported by local journalism, by professional journalists, understanding what’s going on in the world around us, is an essential service.”…