OTTAWA—The fate of the country’s news industry became more precarious Thursday after Google joined Meta in preparing to block all Canadian news content from its platforms in retaliation for Ottawa’s recently passed online news bill. The tech giant will also axe its Google News Showcase program, which boosts the profiles of more than 150 publications across the country. We don’t take this decision or its impacts lightly and believe it’s important to be transparent with Canadian publishers and our users as early as possible,” Google’s president of global affairs Kent Walker wrote in a blog post. This shows how deeply irresponsible and out of touch they are, especially when they make billions of dollars off of Canadian users,” the minister said in a statement. The multinational tech company had hoped for specific reassurances from Ottawa before the regulatory process — where further details regarding how the law will work in practice will be finalized — gets underway.

Source: thestar June 30, 2023 14:19 UTC