Tell Minister Guilbeault to kill the Netflix Tax and Link Tax NOW!

Canadian Heritage Minister Guilbeault is trying to drag us backwards in time to an old, outdated Internet. 

The Netflix Tax has been ‘off the table’ for years, but Minister Guilbeault just announced he plans to bring it to Canada. If he gets his way, the Internet will devolve into Cable 2.0—complete with higher bills and restrictions on choice.1-3

Worse still, he’s also proposing a Link Tax, which would give media giants the power to charge fees for sharing links by copyrighting tiny preview snippets. It’s already failed in places like Spain, where the plan was so bad that Google News left entirely, ultimately hurting smaller news outlets.4

We can’t let this happen in Canada. If we act quickly, we can stop this proposal from ever seeing the light of day in Parliament. Email Minister Guilbeault asking him to stop the Link Tax and Netflix Tax NOW!

Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage

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Cord-cutters left cable TV for a reason: it’s too expensive, too restrictive, and far inferior to the infinite choice and flexibility the Internet offers.5

But the Netflix Tax attempts to shove the Internet into the outdated cable mold—especially when it comes to your bill. Streaming companies will inevitably pass the costs of the tax onto the customer, piling onto the financial stress COVID-19 is already causing.6 The Netflix Tax also does nothing to address CanCon’s systemic issues, including narrow definitions of Canadian content and limited support for creators outside of traditional media outlets.

Streaming is not cable. By forcing it to fit into cable’s dusty old shoes, we’ll break it. We need to support Canadian content, but to do that, we need to meet people where they are: online.

The same is true for supporting Canadian news. The Link Tax ignores that social media and search engines are where people access content. If Facebook or Google remove snippets—the preview text that makes readers want to click—or stop linking to news altogether, it’s Canada’s news organizations and small creators who will suffer.7

In fact, that’s exactly what happened in Germany after implementing the Link Tax: Google stopped showing snippets alongside article links, which bogged down traffic to news outlets.8

We need to stand up for Internet users and small content creators by stopping these proposals. Tell Minister Guilbeault he needs to abandon the Link Tax and Netflix Tax NOW!

Sources

  1. Gov’t to introduce web giant, CanCon, news legislation in fall: Guilbeault - The Wire Report
  2. Canadian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly rules out Internet tax and announces $500-million deal with Netflix - Straight
  3. Netflix tax? Trudeau says no to MPs' proposed broadband internet levy - CBC
  4. Google News Spain to be shut down: what does it mean? - The Guardian
  5. Why Cord Cutting Doubled In 2018 And 10 Million Have Left Since 2012 - Forbes
  6. Who is proposing a Netflix tax? - CBC
  7. Study Of Spain's 'Google Tax' On News Shows How Much Damage It Has Done - TechDirt
  8. Google Removes News Snippets From Complaining Publications In Germany; Publications Claim It's 'Blackmail' - TechDirt

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