FACEBOOK'S CANADIAN HEAD OF PUBLIC POLICY DEFENDED THE TECH GIANT'S DECISION TO CUT OFF NEWS AND PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCIES IN AUSTRALIA, AND DIDN'T RULE OUT TAKING A SIMILAR MEASURE IN CANADA.
Company defends actions, pressed for testimony by CEO
OTTAWA • Facebook's Canadian head of public policy defended the company's decision to cut off news and public health agencies in Australia, and didn't rule out taking a similar measure here.
The company prevented users in Australia from sharing news articles on Facebook in February, after the country passed new legislation requiring web giants like Facebook and Google to compensate publishers for those links.
Kevin Chan, Facebook's head of public policy in Canada, said Australia's model was simply unworkable.
“Unfortunately, the proposed legislation did not acknowledge basic facts about the internet, did not recognize the value that platforms provide to news publishers, stood to benefit only large media conglomerates and not independent media outlets,” he told MPs at the House of Commons Heritage Committee.
The Australian ban lasted for only a few days before the company reached an agreement with the government. It has since signed several deals with news publishers in the country.
Liberal MP Julie Dabrusin questioned the company's tactics in the Australian dispute, noting the change came during a crisis when reliable public information is essential.
“Do you think it's an appropriate negotiation strategy with a government to cut access to the news, including public health news, during what is a pandemic?” she asked.
Chan said the company didn't want to take such a step, but also didn't rule out similar measures if Canada adopts similar laws.
“It is never going to be something that we would ever want to do, unless we really have no choice,” he said.
Liberal Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault has yet to unveil new legislation targeting Facebook and other web giants, but has insisted a bill is coming soon that would force companies to pay news publishers for their content. He has said he is looking at Australia's approach as well as France's effort, which forced the internet giants to sit down with publishers and reach agreements.
He has also pledged to move his department's advertising away from companies like Facebook and Google in favour of Canadian companies.
Facebook announced Friday that it would be putting $8 million into a collection of proposals designed to help the news industry, including a program to pay for eight reporters working at The Canadian Press, a national wire service that provides stories and photographs to member news outlets, including the National Post. The additional funding will allow The Canadian Press to keep the eight journalists onboard until 2024.
Conservative MP Kevin Waugh said the timing of the announcement felt off to him.
“I'm a little cynical about it, you knew you're coming to this committee on Monday, and then all of a sudden you're bringing out another $8 million to support your news fellowship,” he said.
Facebook also announced more work with newspapers to help them grow audiences and Chan said the company plans to conclude commercial deals with publishers to bring about a solution.
Chan said the company is interested in many potential proposals, but can't agree to a deal where it would have to compensate publishers when they post links on Facebook.
“It fundamentally breaks the premise of how a free and open internet works.”
Chan said many publishers welcome the opportunity to post stories on Facebook and have them reach wider audiences.
“The reality is if you speak to some of the local news publishers, they'll tell you that in fact they are benefiting from being able to share freely.”
Committee members asked Chan several questions that he was unable to answer, including how much tax the company pays in Canada, what its revenues are and what profit it makes on those revenues.
He did say changes are coming to the company's corporate filings to allow it to be more transparent about how much revenue it raises from the 24 million accounts in Canada.
He also declined to say whether the company had any Francophone moderators in Quebec to look for hate speech and other disturbing content.
The committee had asked Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, to appear before them, an invitation he has now refused three times.
After pointing out that Zuckerberg is the majority shareholder, CEO and a member of the board of directors, Liberal MP Anthony Housefather told Chan that Zuckerberg should really appear before MPs himself.
“I really strongly request that you convey that back because for me, it entirely changed the way I was going to question Facebook today,” he said.