MPs say tech giants should pay
Bittle, Badawey support call for Facebook, Google to share revenues with content producers
AAt least two Niagara MPs say tthey support requiring online tech giants such as Google and FFacebook to start sharing ad- vertising v revenue with the Ca- nadian publishers whose stories they use.
Those platforms take in an estimated 80 per cent of all the digital advertising revenue in Canada. They do it, in part, by taking news stories generated by Canadian publishers, then sharing them through their online platforms and selling their
own advertising to go with it. The Canadian newspapers — they employ the journalists who produce the stories — don’t get a share of that revenue.
Meanwhile, over the past decade newspapers have struggled g ndustry or closed moves outright away as from the print with a focus on online publishing.
Liberal members Chris Bittle of St. Catharines and Vance Badawey of Niagara Centre said tthey support government ac- tion to require the online giants to pay for the stories they use.
Niagara’s two other members of Parliament, Conservatives Dean Allison (Niagara West) and Tony Baldinelli (Niagara FFalls) did not respond to inter- view requests Thursday.
“It’s about fairness,” said Badawey. “Those who benefit
from the Canadian news ecossystem must also contribute to it.
The federal government is being urged to act by News Media Canada, a lobby group of Canadian digital publishers that includes Torstar, which owns the St. Catharines Standard, the Niagara Falls Review, the Welland Tribune and Niagara This
Week.
The group stresses it is not looking for a government handout, and no public money
would be involved. Instead, it wants Ottawa to empower publishers to negotiaate with Facebook and Google to receive a share of the advertising revenue derived from distribution of their stories.
They also want the right to binding arbitration if negotiation fails.
That would make up for millions of dollars in lost revenue, tthey say, and protect Canadian jobs.
“Virtually all our digital media outlets now face an existential
threat because of the anti-competitive practices of web giants like Facebook and Google,” the ggroup wrote in a recent report titled “Levelling the Digital Playing Field.”
Facebook denied the accusation, saying its practice actually helps newspapers build up
their online subscriptions.
In its throne speech in September, the government promised to address the issue soon.
Bittle called a free press important to Canadian democracy, and said it’s important to protect local newspapers. “We don’t have to look further
than what happened with (Niagara) regional government to see the benefit of a local newspaper and what it can do,” he said.
He was referring to the Standard’s investigation of the process that led to the hiring of
former Niagara Region chief administrative officer Carmen D’Angelo. It spurred an investigation by Ontario’s ombudsman’s office that found the process was tainted. Numerous high-level staffers lost their jobs aat Region headquarters as a re- sult, and D’Angelo left prior to
the expiry of his contract. “I worry for places that don’t have strong journalism, and we can’t let Canada become one of
those places,” Bittle said. Noting Canada is a comparatively small market for global
giants such as Facebook and Google, Badawey said it might have to work with other countries that are instituting their
own rules.
“We are following very closely wwhat measures our partners, including France and Australia, aare putting in place to support their news publishers, and a made-in-Canada formula is
currently under study,” he said.