What is the Online News Act that will force Meta & Google to end news access for Canadian users

Facebook’s parent company Meta Platforms Inc said on Saturday that if the Canada’s Online News Act is passed as it is in its current state, the company will no longer allow news content to Canadians on any of its platforms. The “Online News Act,” or House of Commons bill C-18, presented in April last year outlined regulations that would require platforms such as Meta and Alphabet’s Google to negotiate commercial agreements and compensate news publishers for their content, mainly news and videos. “A legislative structure that requires us to pay for links or material that we do not publish, and which are not the reason the overwhelming majority of people use our platforms, is neither sustainable nor practical,” a Meta spokesperson said, citing the country’s suspension of news access. Meta’s action comes after Google began trying limited news censorship as a possible answer to the measure last month. The Canadian news media business has requested the government for more regulation of tech companies in order to recoup financial losses sustained over the years as tech behemoths such as Google and Meta steadily acquire market dominance in advertising. Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said in a statement on Sunday that it was disheartening to see Facebook turning to threats rather than cooperating with the Canadian government in good faith, and that the C-18 law had nothing to do with how Facebook makes news accessible to Canadians. “All we’re requesting is that Facebook arrange fair contracts with news sources when they profit from their labour,” Rodriguez explained. “This is part of a disappointing pattern this week in which internet titans prefer to pull news than pay their due share." Last year, Facebook expressed worry about the law and cautioned that it might be compelled to stop news-sharing on its platform. Meanwhile, Google is increasing their tests that will restrict access to news material for some Canadian users, the company revealed on Wednesday, as part of a potential reaction to the government’s online news law. “We’re quickly testing possible Bill C-18 product reactions that will affect a very tiny proportion of Canadian users. Every year, we conduct thousands of experiments to evaluate any possible changes to Search “Reuters received a written comment from a Google representative. The tech giant verified that the time-limited experiments, which affect a random sample of less than 4 per cent of Canadian users, “limit the exposure of Canadian and foreign news to different degrees." Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.