Community radio stations and other non-profit journalism outlets will be able to seek payments from large digital platforms like Facebook and Google, under an amendment to Bill C-18 adopted by the House of Commons heritage committee. The MPs also voted to specify that Indigenous storytelling through media counts as a form of news content eligible for payments. (The Logic)
Talking point: The Online News Act would require the platforms to negotiate payments to journalism outlets that produce content the platforms or their users link to. The committee rejected a Conservative move to set a threshold in the law for the revenue a platform could make in Canada before having to pay. The MPs didn’t finish their clause-by-clause consideration of the bill Tuesday and will need to debate it further before sending it back to the Commons. The Logic’s CEO David Skok has testified in support of the bill, on the grounds that large platforms are already striking payment deals that favour large media companies. Before Tuesday’s amendment, other small publishers had voiced concerns about the bill.