Facebook and Bill C18

Vedansh Patel (100829683)

Faculty of Business and IT, Ontario Tech University

BUSI 1030- 45522: Writing and Critical Thinking

William Thurber

November 24, 2022

 Facebook and Bill C18

Introduction

According to the Parliament of Canada, Bill C18 is an Act respecting online

communications platforms that make news content available to persons in Canada ("Government

bill (House of Commons) C-18 (44-1) - First reading - Online news act - Parliament of Canada,"

n.d.). Bill C-18 would mandate that internet behemoths strike agreements to compensate media

organizations for making their news material available on significant online platforms. Any

agreements the firms have already made with news organizations wouldn't be impacted. The

effort by Canada to require internet giants to pay for journalism and submit to a controlled

arbitration procedure is in response to legislation of a similar nature that was passed in Australia

last year. Facebook, which has now changed its name to Meta, took down news articles from its

platform in Australia for a few days as the country's laws were being completed. However, after

the government changed the law, Facebook reinstated the information. The head of media

partnerships for Meta Canada said in a statement that the firm was surprised not to get an

invitation to participate, especially considering public assertions by lawmakers that this law is

targeted at Facebook. Meta Canada has yet to appear before the committee (Smith,22).

Statement of Problem

Under Bill C-18, internet siegers would be required to reach arrangements to pay

media organizations for making their news content available on key online platforms. The firms'

existing partnerships with news organizations wouldn't be affected. In my opinion, one of the

concerns this bill raises is that the Online News Act might lower the bar for Canadian

journalism. The proposed bill employs a broad definition of "qualified news firms" and exempts

eligible news organizations from basic ethical requirements. The legislation would in fact
provide funding for any publication that "explains current concerns or occurrences of public

interest." Therefore, any commentary or opinion blog with two or more authors may be eligible

to receive funding. Additionally, it implies that foreign state-owned media outlets can be

qualified, even if they have a history of disinformation and propaganda.