Trudeau minister to work ‘quickly’ on making Facebook pay Canadian news outlets for content

Similar blueprints have been laid out in France and Australia.

The royalty style system was touted as a success by the likes of Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who said that the move “[is] about a fair go for Australian news media businesses. It’s about ensuring that we have increased competition, increased consumer protection, and a sustainable media landscape."

“Nothing less than the future of the Australian media landscape is at stake,” Fryerberg told media last month.

“We are talking to our French colleagues, of course to our Australian colleagues. We need to come up with a made-in-Canada approach. I mean, what France is doing, we can’t just import this here. Same thing for Australia,” Guilbeault said yesterday. “We are working really hard to be able to present a memorandum to cabinet as soon as possible.”

Facebook has been hostile in response to the idea, saying that it was unfair that the company pay for links that are freely available online.

On the matter, Guilbeault told the National Post: “If Facebook starts boycotting all these countries, at some point their business model is going to face some serious challenges... This is going to be a growing problem for them unless they decide to face the issue.”

“I don’t like bullying attitudes,” he said. “This really reminds me of how big polluters acted 20 years ago, and I don’t think it’s a very constructive approach," said the former Green Peace activist.