via Bloomberg:
Alphabet Inc. said it will remove links to news from Canadian publishers on its Google search engine after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government passed a law requiring digital platforms to pay local news outlets.
The Online News Act “creates uncertainty for our products and exposes us to uncapped financial liability simply for facilitating Canadians’ access to news from Canadian publishers,” Kent Walker, the Mountain View, California-based company’s president of global affairs, said in a statement.
The links will be removed when the law takes effect, Walker said.
The move followed Meta Platforms Inc.’s announcement last week that it will end the availability of news on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada. Both Alphabet and Meta had tested blocking news on their platforms in recent months.