JUST IN: Google says it will remove all links to Canadian news in response to the Liberal’s Bill C-18, the Online News Act

Google, in a press release today, stated, "The Government of Canada has enacted a new law called Bill C-18 (the Online News Act), requiring two companies to pay for simply showing links to news, something that everyone else does for free. The unprecedented decision to put a price on links (a so-called 'link tax') creates uncertainty for our products and exposes us to uncapped financial liability simply for facilitating Canadians' access to news from Canadian publishers. We have been saying for over a year that this is the wrong approach to supporting journalism in Canada and may result in significant changes to our products."

Google further added, "We have now informed the Government that when the law takes effect, we unfortunately will have to remove links to Canadian news from our Search, News, and Discover products in Canada, and that C-18 will also make it untenable for us to continue offering our Google News Showcase product in Canada."

https://blog.google/intl/en-ca/company-news/outreach-initiatives/an-update-on-canadas-bill-c-18-and-our-search-and-news-products/