Countries that are leading the charge to get Big Tech to pay for news content

While Canadian senators continue their work on reviewing Bill C-18, the Online News Act, a news story from the U.S.-based Poynter Institute provided some context around how a there’s a growing global movement to ensure Big Tech platforms pay publishers for the use of their news content.

In addition to Australia passing its News Media Bargaining Code in 2021 the piece describes how countries such as Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, New Zealand and the United States, in addition to Canada, are considering similar laws.

News Media Canada president and CEO Paul Deegan is quoted in the piece.

“In the lead-up to the introduction of (the C-18) legislation, Google and Meta started doing deals with several large publishers, which has led to an imbalance among publishers,” he says.

“The Online News Act will address that and ensure that publishers large and small get a fair deal. That’s certainly what we’ve seen in Australia, where some small publishers have done better than the larger ones on a per capita basis.”

You can read the full piece, with specific updates on the status of legislation in other countries, here.