O Google may be forced to remove links to news articles found in search results on Canada, if the government manages to pass a law to force Internet companies to pay the media, a company executive told lawmakers on Wednesday (3). Canada’s proposed legislation would force platforms such as alphabet inc.the parent company of Google and the parent company of Facebook, Meta Platforms Incnegotiate commercial deals and pay Canadian news outlets for their content, part of a larger global trend of charging technology companies for news.

“The extreme level of business uncertainty and unlimited financial liability that Google is being asked to accept … is unreasonable,” Google vice president for information Richard Gingras said during an interview. testimony before a Senate committee. “If we have to pay publishers just to link to their sites, causing us to lose money with every click, it would be reasonable for us, or any company, to reconsider why we would continue to do so,” said he added.

• Users no longer need a password to access Google Accounts
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Ottawa’s proposal is similar to groundbreaking legislation passed by Australia in 2021 that also sparked threats from Google and Facebook to cut their services. Both ended up striking deals with Australian media companies after amendments to the legislation were proposed.

Since the Australian law came into effect, tech companies have made more than 30 deals with media outlets, compensating them for content-generating traffic.