Google To Block Local News In Canada
Alphabet-owned Google has said it will remove links to Canadian news on its platforms across Canada, according to a media report on Friday.
The tech giant’s decision came after Canadian government’s new law that mandates digital forms to compensate media outlets for the content they share or otherwise repurpose came to effect. Google on Thursday informed of removing Canadian news links from its platform Google News and Google Discover.
Google News is the tech major’s service available on the web or application that highlights local news and Google Discover is a feature on smartphones that helps users find content.
Commenting on the matter, Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said big techs are not bigger than Canada. He took on Twitter too and stressed that the technology majors would rather spend more on blocking Canadian news than paying a small share of the billions they make.
Google has not officially declared when exactly it would begin removing the news but hinted that it would begin before the Canadian federal government’s law takes effect by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Meta also made a similar announcement last week, stating the removal of Canadian news from its social media platforms Facebook and Instagram before the law comes into force.
