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“Corus is committed to providing Canadians with timely, reliable, high-quality news, and stand with our industry peers in ensuring everyone has broad access to reliable information online,” the company said in a statement. “We are disappointed in the recent actions take by Meta, and encourage all foreign digital platforms to actively participate in meaningful discussions regarding Bill C-18 to create an open and accessible media landscape in Canada.
Bill C-18, officially known as “An Act respecting online communications platforms that make news content available to persons in Canada,” is a federal statute that requires search engines to pay Canadian news companies to link to their websites. It was passed into law on June 22. However, Meta has responded by announcing that it would block Canadian news on its platforms.
Corus’s move follows on the heels of similar moves by British Columbia, Quebec and the federal government, as well as the CBC, all major Quebec media companies, and Postmedia, which owns the National Post.