A Google logo is seen at the entrance to the Toronto company's internet-based operations.
Google could be forced to remove links to news articles from Canadian search results if the government passes a bill to compel internet companies to pay news publishers, a company executive said on Wednesday.
Under Canada's proposed legislation, platforms such as Alphabet Inc, Google s parent, and Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc will negotiate commercial deals and pay Canadian news publishers for their content, part of a broader trend to make tech firms pay for news.
The extreme level of business uncertainty and uncapped financial liability that Google is being asked to accept is unreasonable, said Richard Gingras, Google's vice president of news.
Google's testing this year resulted in Google examining some Canadian users' access to information as a possible response to the legislation, a move Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called a terrible mistake. Ottawa's proposal has similarities to a groundbreaking law that Australia passed in 2021, which led to threats from Google and Facebook to curtail their services. Both sides then struck deals with Australian media companies after amendments to the legislation were offered.
The tech firms have approved more than 30 deals with media outlets compensating them for content-generating traffic since the legislation took effect.
Canada's news sector has called for stricter regulation of tech firms to ensure that they do not elbow news businesses out of the online advertising market. The news industry says it has suffered financial losses as companies such as Meta and Google continue to gain greater market share of online advertising revenue.