‘Business would be over’: Canada’s news publishers say ban by Google and Facebook would devastate them

OTTAWA—Canadian news publishers have shed new light on how journalism in Canada could be harmed if big tech platforms make good on their threats to block the posting of their content, should Ottawa’s online news bill pass unchanged.

Pierre-Elliott Levasseur, the president of Quebec’s La Presse and a director with News Media Canada, said if news sharing was blocked on Facebook alone, the French-language news outlet would take a “financial hit” of under a million dollars. Both Google and Meta oppose aspects of the proposed legislation, arguing that news content accounts for a small percentage of queries — and revenue — on their platforms. If the bill passes in its current form, Google has signalled it could cut its existing deals with Canadian publishers as it decides whether to wipe news content for Canadians who use its search engine entirely. Meta, meanwhile, says it’son all news content posted and shared within Canada on Facebook and Instagram.

“Even worse, Canadians will no longer be exposed to news in that environment, at a time when voter turnout is at record lows, and we can expect to be flooded with misinformation through technologies like generative AI.”Generative AI is a form of artificial intelligence that can reproduce text and images when prompted to do so. Theof AI, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has sparked concern that false, artificially generated information will swamp the internet.

Witnesses before the Senate’s transport and communications committee touted a number of amendments Tuesday that they hope to see built into the proposed legislation, including tweaking a section of the bill critics say gives the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission wide latitude to demand confidential information from news companies.

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