Google to remove news links in Canada

Google has announced that it will remove news links from media outlets from its services in Canada. Following the Canadian government’s passage of Bill C-18, which requires Google and Meta to pay media outlets for the news they share on their platforms, Google, one of the world’s largest search engines, has made the decision to stop featuring news links on its services in Canada. Following the introduction of the legislation aimed at compensating media outlets, Google Head of Global Affairs Kent Walker announced that it will be removing news links from its news content search, research and discovery products in Canada. “We are disappointed that it has come to this. We do not take this decision or its impact lightly. We believe it is important to be as transparent as possible with Canadian publishers and our users,” Walker said. “This unprecedented so-called ‘link tax’, which seeks to put a price on links, creates uncertainty for our products and exposes us to an uncapped financial liability simply for making it easier for Canadians to access news from Canadian publishers.” Approved on June 22 The Canadian Government, with the C-18 Online News Act, required Google and Meta to pay media organizations for the news they share on their platforms. The law, which was passed in the Canadian Federal Parliament, was also approved by the Canadian Senate on June 22, 2023. The law will come into force in the coming days after the approval of the Governor General of Canada. Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, also announced that it would comply with the law and that access to news on these social media platforms would be terminated.