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Meta threatens to switch off news in response to Canadian law

Meta has stated it may be compelled to block news content in Canada in response to a new law that would force platforms to compensate publishers for the value that their content brings to tech giants.

The Canadian Government has calculated that its Online News Act could see payments worth over £200 million to news publishers, covering up to 30% of their editorial costs. The Bill is intended to be passed this year, but could be delayed until 2023. A similar piece of legislation in Australia has seen deals worth around £115 million per year struck between Meta and Google, with the threat of designation under the new Bargaining Code enough to see the platforms enter negotiations.

Crucially, under proposals set out by the Competition and Markets Authority and Ofcom for how similar outcomes could be achieved through empowering the Digital Markets Unit (DMU), the requirements for tech giants to compensate publishers would not be confined to core news publishers.

The PPA continue to monitor international developments to understand how policies developed in other jurisdictions could be applied in a UK context, as well as maintaining dialogue with Government to ensure that specialist media businesses, including smaller publishers, will benefit from DMU regulation.

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