It’s All About Media Control for Trudeau Liberals
The Trudeau Liberals continue to turn Canada into a dystopian state by centralizing power and controlling what information Canadians can access over the Internet.
The passage of Bill C-18, known as the Online News Act, requires Big Tech giants Google and Meta to compensate Canadian news organizations for content appearing on their platforms.
The government argues that Google and Meta control 80% of the $14 billion on-line advertising market in Canada and that they are to blame for mainstream media’s demise.
The legislation forces the tech titans to negotiate compensation deals with news organizations. Otherwise the CRTC steps in. The government hopes to extort $329 million annually by taxing Facebook and Google revenues, at the rate of 4%.
No other country in the world levies such a large tax.
One can hear cash-starved media executives and lobby groups producing a crescendo of hip-hip hoorays, believing the industry will be saved and democracy protected from the misinformation cascading from every corner of the Internet.
As the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for.
The Liberal government loves to control how Canadians live, think and speak. Earlier this year they passed Bill C-11 to tax Netflix and YouTube, racking in millions that are then handed over to Canadian producers to create shows that no one watches.
Digital ID is making its way to Canada with some obvious benefits but personal information will be stored in centralized databases that can be accessed by the government at any time. Imagine what can happen when every citizen’s personal information is available at the government’s fingertips.
Bill C-18 is an evolution of how the state wants to control the media landscape by making it addicted to its cash for survival.
Facebook, owned by Meta, has walked away saying the law was flawed from the get-go. According to Facebook just 3% of its business comes from news. Why on earth would Facebook pay hundreds of millions of dollars to media companies when it does not need news to earn a profit? And if C-18 were replicated by governments around the world, Facebook payouts would balloon into billions, jeopardizing its existence.
Google has stated: “We have informed the Government that when the law takes effect, we unfortunately will have to remove links to Canadian news from our Search, News and Discover products in Canada.”
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