Iqwinder Gaheer at the Public Safety and National Security Committee

On November 7th, 2024. See this statement in context.

November 7th, 2024 / 4:40 p.m.

Liberal

Iqwinder Gaheer Liberal Mississauga—Malton, ON

That's great. Thank you.

We know now that Rachel Curran, Meta's lobbyist and former director of policy for Stephen Harper, when testifying before our committee, said that Meta had to remove news from Facebook and Instagram in Canada because, under the Online News Act, they would be forced “to pay approximately $80 million a year for content that had no particular commercial value to us”.

For those keeping track at home, last year Meta made $134 billion in revenue, and $80 million is 0.05% of Meta's annual revenue. Do you think that 0.05% of revenue, which is a rounding error, is too much to ask global tech giants to pay for Canadian news?

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