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Bill C-18: Google to remove news links in Canada over online news law

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331–340 of 503 posts

Re: Bill C-18: Google to remove news links in Canada over online news law

#331
post #221
post #5

Brazil is currently considering a similar law that would require social networks to compensate content creators for each republication [1]. However, unlike the situation in Canada, the Brazilian lawmakers have taken into account this scenario. The law mandates that social networks cannot cease publishing the content and must negotiate compensation in "fair terms." Personally, I find this approach to be quite perplexi…

Would it have been better for these bills (CA/Brazil) to mandate revenue sharing, i.e. no flat fee per link from google, but a percentage of revenue from ads served associated w/ the link?

That would be fair enough but also wouldn't give the publishers what they want, because Google doesn't show ads in their News app or in Google News on the web:

https://news.google.com

I just opened it on a browser with no ad blocker and scrolled to the bottom. There are no ads in there. It's all news.

Re: Bill C-18: Google to remove news links in Canada over online news law

#332
post #64
post #36

Many people who would otherwise be appalled at laws like this seem to want to rationalize this because its specifically targeting Google and Meta. Sometimes taking the simple view is correct: It's a bad thing to prevent sites from linking to one another. It's a bad thing to interfere with the ability to access information on the Internet for reasons of nationalist politics.

> Many people who would otherwise be appalled at laws like this seem to want to rationalize this because its specifically targeting Google and Meta. It's not just a matter of the targeted companies being Google and Meta, even though these two especially deserve it. It's the simple realization that good journalism requires good money, and that the current balance between news organizations and internet brokers isn't u…

We need proper paid subscriptions again, but we have the chicken/egg problem that people only pay for extremely high quality sources, but there are none.

CBC has received $1.2 billion annually from the federal government (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Broadcasting_Corporat...) and is very ... government friendly ... in matters like the trucker protests.

I remember more independent press around 2000-2010, where there was true opposition in the media. I see nothing like that now.

Re: Bill C-18: Google to remove news links in Canada over online news law

#333
post #156
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Many people who would otherwise be appalled at laws like this seem to want to rationalize this because its specifically targeting Google and Meta. It's not just a matter of the targeted companies being Google and Meta, even though these two especially deserve it. It's the simple realization that good journalism requires good money, and that the current balance between news organizations and internet brokers isn't u…

>While Canada's bill may not be well-tuned, it is a welcome first attempt. The problem is media companies have been pushing this exact blueprint for d years. decades. It is a terrible, terrible template. If countries want to tax big tech and give the money to media organizations, they should be honest about it. Laws like this distort reality. >the current balance between news organizations and internet brokers isn't…

>> If countries want to tax big tech and give the money to media organizations, they should be honest about it. Laws like this distort reality.

The idea that big tech would pay the appropriate amount of tax to the appropriate country is laughable.

Re: Bill C-18: Google to remove news links in Canada over online news law

#334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody denies its their right, but that doesn't mean it's not a very stupid action, motivated by dumb nationalism. You can't handwave circumstances away, as if the legislators don't know it is a cashgrab against foreign corporations and genuinely believe Google and Facebook are Canadian companies.

It’s not dumb nationalism, it’s typical lobbying, sold as nationalism.

What's new?

We have been using that same excuse to block out Japanese and Chinese goods in various eras.

Just feels weird the Canadians are copying our playbook

Re: Bill C-18: Google to remove news links in Canada over online news law

#336
post #36

Many people who would otherwise be appalled at laws like this seem to want to rationalize this because its specifically targeting Google and Meta. Sometimes taking the simple view is correct: It's a bad thing to prevent sites from linking to one another. It's a bad thing to interfere with the ability to access information on the Internet for reasons of nationalist politics.

Governments are there to serve their citizens, not the interests of foreign multinational companies. If this is good for Canadian businesses and the citizens running them and working for them then good for them.

[dead]

Re: Bill C-18: Google to remove news links in Canada over online news law

#337
post #36

Many people who would otherwise be appalled at laws like this seem to want to rationalize this because its specifically targeting Google and Meta. Sometimes taking the simple view is correct: It's a bad thing to prevent sites from linking to one another. It's a bad thing to interfere with the ability to access information on the Internet for reasons of nationalist politics.

On the other hand, less people arguing over news articles may be what the world needs.

Re: Bill C-18: Google to remove news links in Canada over online news law

#338
The argument is always that these companies are using and benefiting from news for free. Now, they aren't. It's weird to create a new kind of property right and then complain that companies are choosing to simply stop doing the thing that triggers the new right.

Re: Bill C-18: Google to remove news links in Canada over online news law

#339

I was at Facebook working on ranking when a similar thing happened with Australia. Showing news is a net negative for Facebook and probably not very positive for Google. Facebook's short and long term metrics were better without news. Facebook and Google are basically doing charity when they link to local news sites. These laws make absolutely no sense when you think about that.

Well, the users of Facebook/Google would like to link to those sites, and Facebook/Google would like to keep those users...

Re: Bill C-18: Google to remove news links in Canada over online news law

#340

The eff had an interesting article[1] about this issue (and others) as well as some alternative ways solve the issue, not that I agree with all of them. Ultimately, this is the wrong approach. The internet should be "open," and people or companies should be free to link to whatever they want without penalty. [1] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/saving-news-big-tech

Facebook, Instagram, etc. are not "open", so the argument doesn't work.
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