The Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, an interdisciplinary research centre out of the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University, has shared their most recent report Canada’s Bill C-18 (the Online News Act) and the struggle to regulate Big Tech, “Canada’s News Bargaining Code: An Unabridged Account of C-18,” by Sophia Crabbe-Field, Principal Investigator and Lead Author, and Asha Sivarajah, Senior Researcher and Contributing Author.
The report provides the first comprehensive analysis of C-18 (the Online News Act)—Canada’s bold but complex attempt to rebalance power between Big Tech and journalism. Based on media accounts, expert testimony, and interviews with journalists, policymakers, and global experts, the report hopes to give stakeholders in Canada and abroad a full overview of its successes, challenges, and far-reaching implications. It details the context for the bill, and its journey through Canada’s legislative process, the lobbying and media discourses, the critical differences and similarities with Australia’s bill, the aftermath and implications for Canadian journalism, as well as future directions for news bargaining codes—or their alternatives—in Canada and abroad
