Online News Act not perfect but necessary: Heritage Minister

Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge says that while the Online News Act isn't perfect, the media landscape is changing too fast for the government to wait any longer.

Speaking at the MINDS international news agency conference in Toronto, St-Onge said that the government intends to stand firm with the law that will force Facebook and Google to pay for news links on their websites.

She says Facebook is using intimidation tactics by removing all news links in Canada before the act is even in force, and encouraged other countries to also take action against tech giants to protect news.

Facebook parent company Meta has maintained that the legislation is based on the false premise that Meta and others unfairly benefit from news content, and that the only way it can reasonably comply with the law is to end news availability in Canada.

Google has kept a more open dialogue with the government, and St-Onge said she had heard the company's concern about knowing how much they'll have to pay under the law.

St-Onge says that part of the challenge is that the government waited too long to regulate digital platforms, so it's starting with this law and can adapt it over time.