By Ismail Shakil and Steve Scherer
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday it was a “terrible mistake” for Alphabet Inc’s Google to block news content in reaction to a government bill that would compel the tech giant to pay publishers in Canada for news content.
Google said this week it was testing blocking some Canadian users’ access to news as a potential response to the Trudeau government’s “Online News Act,” which is expected to be passed into law.
Trudeau, speaking to reporters in Toronto, said the blocking of news in Canada was an issue “bothering” him.
“It really surprises me that Google has decided that they’d rather prevent Canadians from accessing news than actually paying journalists for the work they do,” he said.
“I think that’s a terrible mistake and I know Canadians expect journalists to be well paid for the work they do.”
Google…
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