The News That Was Rarely Fit to Print
A Thread on Bill C-18, the Online News Act
Bill C-18 will pass in the House of Commons later today. This post unpacks why this bill received an embarrassing legislative review driven by lobby interests determined to extract payments for links. A longer thread on what you might have missed… 1/14
Michael Geist @mgeist
From the moment it was introduced, the foundation of Bill C-18 was obvious: payments for links. Internet platforms don’t reproduce full text, so the payments could only be grounded in linking to the original source. 2/14
Michael Geist @mgeist
A closer review revealed Bill C-18 went far beyond just links. The standard is “facilitating access to news”, which includes just about anything such as inclusion in a search index or linking to the front page of a newspaper. All require compensation. 3/14
Michael Geist @mgeist
Why such an extreme approach? The lobbyist registration records tell the story: a full court press from large Canadian media outlets, who leveraged the editorial space in their publications to demand Bill C-18.
4/14
Michael Geist @mgeist
Once Bill C-18 was tabled, the government moved quickly to cut off debate in the House of Commons. In fact, Canadian Heritage Minister @pablorodriguez never even spoke to the bill in the House before it was shuffled off to committee. 5/14
Michael Geist @mgeist
Once Bill C-18 arrived committee, the consequences for freedom of expression for payments for links was raised repeatedly. It didn’t matter. MPs either denied it or, when officials admitted links were included, downplayed the implications.
6/14
Michael Geist @mgeist
The same was true for the risks to Canada’s trade and treaty obligations. For example, violating Canada’s international copyright obligations didn’t even merit a question from government MPs.
7/14
Michael Geist @mgeist
As for the obvious implications for freedom of the press, government MPs and supportive witnesses pretended they weren’t actively campaigning in their own papers and spiking contrary editorials.
8/14
Michael Geist @mgeist
While ignoring that evidence, the government initially tried to block dozens of potential witnesses, saying they had heard enough after only three hearings. They only relented after Facebook raised the prospect of blocking news sharing in Canada. 9/14
Michael Geist @mgeist
Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Budget Officer found that the purported benefits would go largely to big broadcasters such as Bell, Rogers, and the CBC. The big payday for newspapers isn’t so big after all. 10/14
Michael Geist @mgeist
In fact, the PBO estimate is actually far larger than the government’s own expectations. Keeping the data secret for months, during clause-by-clause review officials admitted their estimate was less than half the PBO’s. 11/14
Michael Geist @mgeist
Once Bill C-18 moved to clause-by-clause, the government removed the guardrails on who is an eligible news outlet, adding hundreds of community, campus and indigenous broadcasters who have CRTC licences but may not even produce news. 12/14
Michael Geist @mgeist
While those entities were in, smaller independent and digital first outlets feared they would be excluded. In fact, MP @lisahepfner told committee the online news services weren’t news at all. She later apologized and didn’t speak again at committee. 13/14
Michael Geist @mgeist
That’s just some of the Bill C-18 story as government picks winners and losers, risks blocked news on social media, and creates mandated payments for links. The bill will now heads to the Senate for review by the same committee that worked on C-11. 14/14
Michael Geist @mgeist
Unbelievable. Strangely enough, this isn't reported much by CBC, Rogers, or Bell.
Thank you for keeping this in the light as much as you can, Mr. Geist!