Survey also shows few Canadians are following C-18
CANADIANS ARE NOT very familiar with the Bill C-18, the Online News Act, but after hearing about Google’s concerns, most still want government to amend it, according to data from an Abacus Data survey commissioned by Google Canada that was released last week.
“The results clearly indicate that while few Canadians are paying close attention to what is happening with the Online News Act, the issues with Bill C-18 raised by Google resonate with Canadians and cause them to want legislators to amend the bill to address concerns they have with it – including Liberal supporters and those most familiar with the legislation,” reads a summary of the survey data by Abacus Data CEO David Coletto.
According to the survey, which was conducted from Aug. 19-26, 2022, only 8% of Canadians are “very familiar” with the bill, while 25% are “somewhat familiar”, 33% have “only heard about it” and 34% had “not heard about it before today”. (Please see chart above.)
Survey respondents were later presented with Google’s concerns about the bill, including that C-18 gives the CRTC “unprecedented, sweeping new powers to regulate every aspect of the Canadian news industry even though these decisions are far outside of its expertise as a broadcast regulator” and that it would require Google to pay a link tax and “fundamentally breaks the way search (and the internet) have always worked”, Coletto’s post explains.
Another of Google’s concerns expressed to respondents is that “a section of the bill prohibits companies like Google from using ranking, or showing you the content most relevant to your search, first.”
After being presented with this information, 59% of respondents said the government should amend the legislation to address Google’s concerns. (Please see chart, right.)
The survey has been criticized. Taylor Owen, Beaverbrook chair of media, ethics and communication at McGill University, for example, posted a tweet, which says “this is perfectly fine as a piece of market research to test a private company’s talking points. But let’s not pretend it tells us anything meaningful about public sentiment on the actual bill nor serves the public interest to have a responsible debate about it.”
Howard Law, former director of Unifor’s local media unions, commented on his blog MediaPolicy.ca that “the survey questions are loaded with argumentative premises and false claims about the bill.”
The survey, particularly Google’s concerns as expressed to respondents, has also been criticized by the government.
“The Online News Act protects local news. It is not a link tax: Canadians are not paying for anything, and no money goes to the government,” said Laura Scaffidi, press secretary of the minister of heritage. “The Online News Act does not require Google Search to remove or restrict search results. It outlines an objective set of criteria, removed from political decision-making, to determine eligible news organizations.”
For more on the Abacus Data survey, please click here.
