This is always the question with any large corporation. “If we try to regulate, will they co-operate?”
We have evidence that Google did co-operate in that instance. Meta chose not to. I've talked about the loophole. I've talked about the timidity with which we approached this and our acceptance of their framing of the issue around the link tax and other things. Canada, globally, is a small player. Likely, in the Meta case, what was going on there—and what continues to go on—is that it wasn't about the Canadian market or the Canadian dollar. It was about the global context. It was about the extent to which they were afraid this was going to happen in California, New York and around the world. They were trying to draw a line in the sand. Nevertheless, Facebook usage is enormously high in Canada. There are ads. They make enormous amounts of money in the Canadian context and have a responsibility.
I do not think it is okay for us to say, “They're big, therefore we can't regulate them.” How has that served us in terms of the social platforms? Do we look at society today vis-à-vis 20 years ago and say that we are clearly more democratically enabled, more resilient and more capable now? I don't think we are. There are networks. There is the ability of citizens to talk to one another. There are enormous advantages to that, but I think we can do better.