Can you feel it? The all encompassing Iron Sphere?
Freedom is dying all around the globe.
"VEF vill rule ze verrrld!"
Posted on 08/02/2023 4:08:57 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Canadians’ access to news on Facebook and Instagram will be cut off in the coming weeks after Meta said Tuesday that a “fundamentally flawed” law is forcing the company to make the tough decision.
Canada’s Online News Act, passed by its leftist legislature earlier this summer, requires Big Tech companies to negotiate agreements with Canadian news outlets and pay them for news content shared on social media platforms, Reuters reported. Meta spokesman Andy Stone slammed the law in a tweet on Tuesday and said ending access to news on its platforms was the only option.
“Today we’ve begun the process of ending news availability in Canada. Changes will roll out over a few weeks,” Stone said. “As we’ve always said, the law is based on a fundamentally flawed premise. And, regrettably, the only way we can reasonably comply is to end news availability in Canada.”
Both Meta and Google said in June that they would fight the law by blocking access to news in Canada. The country’s move is part of a global trend to force Big Tech companies to pay for news shared on their platforms, according to Reuters. Australia passed a similar law in 2021, while France and Spain also have social media news laws on the books.
The trend is making its way to the U.S. as well, as lawmakers in California have advanced a bill with bipartisan support mirroring Canada’s Online News Act. Meta has also threatened to block news in California if the bill, dubbed the “Journalism Preservation Act,” passes the state Senate and gets signed into law by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.
“If the Journalism Preservation Act passes, we will be forced to remove news from Facebook and Instagram, rather than pay into a slush fund that primarily benefits big, out-of-state media companies under the guise of aiding California publishers,” Stone said in a statement in May. “The bill fails to recognize that publishers and broadcasters put their content on our platform themselves and that substantial consolidation in California’s local news industry came over 15 years ago, well before Facebook was widely used.”
In Canada, Meta argued that news articles made up less than 3% of the content in users’ feeds and said news lacks economic value, but Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shot back, saying that Meta’s argument was “not just flawed, but dangerous to our democracy, to our economy.” Trudeau also accused the social media giant of being “deeply irresponsible and out of touch.”
Google said that Canada’s law is even broader than those passed in Australia and Europe, as it also can apply to outlets that do not produce news. In June, the tech company said it “informed the Government that we have made the difficult decision that when the law takes effect we will be removing links to Canadian news from our Search, News, and Discover products and will no longer be able to operate Google News Showcase in Canada.”
This is rather ironic because Meta/Facebook ended access to US news when it worked with the federal government to censor news.
Okay Canadians: watcha gonna do?
Can you feel it? The all encompassing Iron Sphere?
Freedom is dying all around the globe.
"VEF vill rule ze verrrld!"
PING!
Meta “Pay for news story’s we use? Problem!”
My first instinct is to side with Meta and Google because I despise most of the governments that have passed these laws, but I’m honestly trying to figure out why I should give a crap one way or another. News media outlets should be paid for their content, but they’re going to find out quickly that Meta is right when they say the news has no tangible value.
If anyone wants on or off the Ping Me When the Internet Goes Down pinglist, kindly FReepmail me. Thanks!
99% of the “news” on Facebook is leftie swill, anyway.
The woke leftist media would have to pay ME to read most of their news and they don’t do that.
What isn't?
How long before Justin Castro tries to charge and extradite JimRob?
VPN
“Okay Canadians: watcha gonna do?”
Game theory says, change the rules and the players adjust to compensate. If the Canadians want something, they’ll figure out how to get it.
It’s like smuggling. Cocaine used to be shipped in huge bundles on ships. As the border guards got better at finding it, the smugglers adjusted. Now it comes in on-board purpose-built submarines, in the actual hull structure of boats, inside the body panels and tires of vehicles, built into something that can be dissolved leaving only cocaine. The players adjust. Incidentally, that’s why it’s impossible to stop smuggling. As long as there is a market there will be a supply.
This is another variation of sue and settle. Big tech is crying crocodile tears.
Meta understands it’s purpose is to keep the proletariat busy sharing cat pictures with each other.
“dangerous to our democracy, to our economy”
In Leftspeak, “our democracy” is the preferred pronoun for “I” and “me”. “Dangerous” means “inconvenient” or “annoying”, depending on the context.
“that’s why it’s impossible to stop smuggling. As long as there is a market there will be a supply.”
True. But in the case of online news, “smuggling” consists of knowing the web address of (or having a browser bookmark for) the news site you want to read.
Exactly.
Actually, no. Russia, China and Egypt and probably others, have successfully blocked access to news channels that are not controlled by the local governments. There are also channels blocked in the US. For example, during the Iraq war someone sent me a link to a channel that had a video of an actual terrorist attack. I watched the view from a chase car as a car bomb in the car in front was piloted next to a truck full of soldiers. The bomb was detonated from the car in back. When I went back to that link a minute later, it was gone. Error 404 or something similar. We do not have the freedom and access we think we do. It’s an illusion.
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