Technology Google will remove Canadian news publications from their Google products in Canada — Bill C-18 (Link Tax)

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https://9to5google.com/2023/06/29/google-news-canadian/

The Government of Canada has enacted a new law called Bill C-18 (the Online News Act), requiring two companies to pay for simply showing links to news, something that everyone else does for free. The unprecedented decision to put a price on links (a so-called “link tax”) creates uncertainty for our products and exposes us to uncapped financial liability simply for facilitating Canadians’ access to news from Canadian publishers.

An update on Canada’s Bill C-18 and our Search and News products

Bill C-18 has become law and remains unworkable. The Government has not given us reason to believe that the regulatory process will be able to resolve structural issues with the legislation. As a result, we have informed the Government that we have made the difficult decision that when the law...

blog.google

Google announced today that Search, News, and Discover will be “removing links to Canadian news publications” in response to a new law.

This applies only in Canada, with global users of Google products continuing to see Canadian news sites.

Story via Google will locally remove Canadian news sites from Search, Discover over new law

 

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Google won't block news links in Canada in response to new legislation after all. The company pledged earlier this year to pull links to Canadian news stories from Search, News and Discover when the country's Online News Act (Bill C-18) takes effect in December. However, Google has reached a deal with the country's government that will see it continuing to serve users there with Canadian news.

"Following constructive discussions, our government and Google have reached an agreement — they will contribute to the Online News Act. We worked hard to make this possible," Minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge wrote on X. "This Act is good news for journalism, for online platforms and for Canadians."

Google won't block news links in Canada after all

Google has reportedly backed down from its threat to block news links in Canada after reaching a deal with the government.

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