Canada and Google have reached a deal to keep news in search results, with the internet giant agreeing to pay C$100 million a year to the country’s newspaper publishers, the Canadian Heritage Minister said Wednesday.
The deal addresses Alphabet-owned Google’s concerns over Canada’s Online News Act, which aims to force major internet companies to share advertising revenue with the country’s media companies.
“After weeks of productive discussions, I am pleased to announce that we have found a path forward with Google to implement the Online News Act,” Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge said in a statement.
The law, part of a global trend to encourage internet giants to pay for information, was approved by the Canadian Parliament in June. The government is finalizing the rules which must be published before the December 19 deadline.
Google had announced that it would block information on its platform, saying that Canadian law was stricter than European and Australian law. The company had also raised concerns that it would be exposed to potentially unlimited liability.
Last month, a Canadian information trade group supported some of Google’s concerns about the new law.
Meta, another internet giant targeted by the law, has already blocked information sharing on Facebook and Instagram over concerns about the legislation.
The deal between Google and Canada was first reported by Canadian Broadcasting.
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