Facebook’s Australian news blockade won’t deter us: Guilbeault

The day after Facebook Inc. made good on its threat to block all news from being shared on its platform within Australia, Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault denounced the move and said he would press ahead. Facebook’s move came in response to the Australian House of Representatives passing legislation on Tuesday which would require the social media giant to pay news outlets. Speaking at a Thursday press conference, Guilbeault said Facebook's move was "highly irresponsible”. He pointed to reports that Facebook had blocked a suicide hotline number and important information about forest fires. "If I was the leadership of Facebook, I would take a long hard look in the mirror, and really wonder what I’m doing is the right thing," Guilbeault said at the press conference. "But it won’t deter us from moving ahead," he said. Responding to a question from the Wire Report about Alphabet Inc.'s Google entering into partnership with Australian news sites, and whether or not that would be an acceptable outcome in Canada, Guilbeault said that the company "always has had that opportunity, they have it in Canada. We understand that they are talking to Canadian publishers about it, they will always have that right." "What we are doing is moving away from a volunteer approach, we want something that is fair, that is transparent, that is predictable." Guilbeault said that while he has not spoken to his counterparts in Australia since Facebook's move, he has been in touch with them a number of times in recent months, and last week met with ministers from France, Germany, Australia, and Finland to discuss possible approaches to regulating the web giants. “We believe that there’s real strength in unity on that.” In September, when Facebook first warned it would block the sharing of news content if Australia moved ahead with legislation, Guilbeault denounced what he called "threats" from the social media giant. After initially saying he would table legislation in the fall of 2020, Guilbeault said Thursday that he plans to introduce the legislation by the spring of this year. While Guilbeault’s proposals have not yet been announced, legislation targeting the web giants has surfaced in Canada, as Conservative Senator Claude Carignan introduced a bill on Wednesday to amend the Copyright Act that would amend the Copyright Act to mandate compensation for "journalistic works." "A massive influx of digital platforms and of social media in general has shaken up and disrupted advertising revenue for traditional media, thus threatening their survival," the bill's preamble reads. Also on Wednesday, Bloc Heritage critic Martin Champoux sought unanimous consent on a motion asking the government to take "urgent action" to address what the motion said in French is "inequity between web giants and our media when it comes to advertising income." — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Tim Forster at tforster@thewirereport.ca

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Facebook’s Australian news blockade won’t deter us: Guilbeault

News | February 18, 2021

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