Bill C-18 will hurt community radio: head of radio association

Each time a news link appears in a Google or Facebook search, the bill would force the social media giant to compensate for news links but the amount of compensation is unknown.

Community and not-for-profit radio stations across Canada are asking people to contact their local MP and voice your concerns over Bill C-18. The Online Act has passed through government and will come into effect in about 6 months time.

Each time a news link appears in a Google or Facebook search, the bill would force the social media giant to compensate for news links but the amount of compensation is unknown. Meta, which owns Facebook, has started blocking news agencies as a result.

Barry Rooke is the Executive Director of the National Community Radio Association. He says Facebook is starting to push back against the government's decision. Rooke says community radio stations are mandated to produce a certain amount of news content. “We were then put into the law which before we were not, and government officials understood that we were mandated by our license to create news,” he says.

“That plan backfired on us because we didn’t expect the tech giants to flip and go back on the deal they made with commercial broadcasters and continue to refuse to meet with us.”

Rooke says this will hurt community radio. “It was an interesting space to be in that we were being recognized as being credibly important and part of the values why this bill got put in place,” he says. “But then we were highlighted and our names got put on the black list for the social media companies.” Rooke says social media tried the same thing in Australia but big tech companies have reversed it allowing news postings again.