As trade negotiations between the US and Canada broke down at the end of August, reports in media outlets such as the Toronto Star, emerged that American negotiators targeted the Online News Act as a concession from Canada. Neither side has confirmed the specific agenda on the negotiating table, but U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer posted on social media that the deal would include "digital trade alignment." The USTR has previously identified the Online News Act as an irritant. President Trump has raged against digital regulations in other countries, which he claims "attack our incredible American Tech Companies."

The stakes extend beyond the US-Canada relationship. Governments worldwide are grappling with the economic disruption caused by advertising revenue shifting to major digital platforms and the resulting erosion of the business models that have traditionally financed journalism.

If measures intended to support journalism's sustainability become targets in unrelated trade negotiations, smaller countries, in particular, would have to abandon democratically enacted media policies or risk economic retaliation from more powerful trading partners like the US. This would give foreign trade partners-and the Big Tech companies lobbying them-significant influence over the rules governing local information ecosystems.

How Canada's Online News Act sparked a battle with Big Tech

Canada adopted the Online News Act, also known as Bill C-18, in June 2023. The legislation was intended to address what Canadian lawmakers described as a significant imbalance in bargaining power between large digital platforms and news businesses by establishing a framework for commercial agreements between platforms and eligible Canadian news organisations. The law became the center of a major dispute with Meta and Google.

In 2023, Meta ended the availability of news content on Facebook and Instagram in Canada rather than participating in the framework. As a result, users and media outlets in Canada have largely been unable to view or share news content on Meta's platforms. Google took a different approach. It agreed to contribute CAD $100 million annually, adjusted for inflation, to the Canadian Journalism Collective for distribution among eligible Canadian news organisations. The agreement led Canada's communications regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), to grant Google a five-year exemption from the law's mandatory bargaining process.

The dispute with Meta remains unresolved. In February 2026, a group representing local independent television stations asked the CRTC to compel Meta to bargain under the Online News Act. According to the Canadian government, Meta maintained it was not subject to the Act and declined to take further action in response to the group's demands.