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By David Charbonneau

Eyeview

CHARBONNEAU: Ottawa’s plan to force digital giants to pay for news is doomed

Oct 1, 2020 | 10:30 AM

YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED IT in the recent throne speech but the federal government intends to tax the digital giants Facebook and Google (FG).

The feds are reacting to complaints by newspapers that FG steals their news and profits from it.

That would be a legitimate complaint if newspapers didn’t give their content away in the first place. They do so to attract readers to their sites where readers will be exposed to advertising and, hopefully, subscribe.

If newspapers didn’t want you to see their products online, they wouldn’t put it there.

The business model for newspapers like the Globe and Mail operates on paid subscriptions and advertising. Obviously, they can’t afford to give away news that subscribers pay for, so they give away content selectively.

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That being the case, the owners of the Globe and Mail were being disingenuous when they took out full page ads in May complaining that FG steals their content and makes money from the links.

If the Globe and Mail didn’t want FG to share content, they wouldn’t ask readers to “share this” on Facebook and they wouldn’t optimize their content so as to be found on Google searches.

Newspaper owners can’t promote sharing on FG and then complain when they do.

Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne took issue with the owners of his newspaper:

“Indeed, most of the industry’s traffic these days, millions of readers and billions of page views annually, comes to us from Facebook and Google. Those readers are worth hundreds of millions of dollars to us annually. It would probably cost us a good chunk of that to find and attract them on our own. Facebook and Google send them to us … at no charge (September 19, 2020).”

Not all media are selective in what they share. CFJC Today places columns such as this one — please share it — and news online.

FG’s business model is quite different. They take content that others create and place ads on it. But, again, FG is not stealing content. People happily post pictures of cats and links like to the ludicrous far-right conspiracy theory QAnon which alleges a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles is running a global child sex-trafficking ring and plotting against President Donald Trump.

The speech from the throne was vague:

“Web giants are taking Canadians’ money while imposing their own priorities. Things must change and will change.”

But Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault was clear when he said: “the Canadian government stands with our Australian partners and denounces any form of threats.”

Guilbeault was referring to Australia’s proposed law which would force FG to hand money over to media when users click on links to the media source that created the content, a so-called “link tax.”

But Facebook would simply begin deleting the links to avoid the tax. A Facebook spokesperson said:

“This is not our first choice – it is our last. But it is the only way to protect against an outcome that defies logic and will hurt, not help, the long-term vibrancy of Australia’s news and media sector.”

Ottawa’s plan to force digital giants to pay for links will backfire. Link taxation will mean that FG will stop sharing the content that legitimate media produce. The news vacuum so created will drive readers to fake news sites.

Is that really what the feds want?

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.