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

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

#471

Post by kevincox »

matbilodeau wrote: post #2

Suggested workaround https://tt-rss.org/ Most news outlets have rss feeds https://www.thestar.com/about/rssfeeds.html https://www.cbc.ca/rss/

The problem is that all of these feeds are huge and not relevant to my interest. For example I live in Toronto but the first 5 items in the CBC Toronto are not interesting to me. For example I see "It's like smoke on your wedding day — How the wedding industry is working around wildfires ". I couldn't give two hoots about people working around some smoke on their wedding. The General News category doesn't do much better.

The category of each individual item doesn't help filtering, most of them are just labeled News/Canada/Toronto.

I love RSS but I don't find these news company feeds compelling. They just pump out too much junk to fill the void of real news.

However I would definitely click through links to their site when searching for news about specific events. But they have shot themselves in the foot. Now I am just going to be directed to US sources instead.

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

#472

Post by tomlin »

int_19h wrote: post #397
tomlin wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Then maybe the government should focus instead on forcing them to be open?

How would a Canadian government force an American company to be more open?

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

#473

Post by carlosjobim »

chongli wrote: post #313
carlosjobim wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People use search engines professionally and not only for entertainment. There is an icebergs worth of important and valuable information online behind paywalls, not only articles or news. Information workers use a search engine to find the information they need, pay the cost if it's paywalled, and then cancel any subscription after getting what they needed. Long gone are the days of "surfing the web", when most of u…

I don't see why there couldn't also be a professional search engine. Academics have Google Scholar which is an amazing resource for them. A search engine that brought up high quality resources for professionals would seem to be pretty useful. It could potentially even have a single subscription to unlock all of the sites in a network, rather than individual paywalls at every site.

We already have professional search engines, since they don't discriminate against paywalls. No need to change that. And there are so many fields of professionals, that you'd need a ton of different specialized search engines for that.

I've come to learn that many people on hacker news have an ethos of never paying for digital content or services. Most people here make an hourly salary of $20 or more in my estimate, yet they will spend days and days of their time to avoid paying $5 for something. So you spend $100-$200 of your time to save $5. What's the rationale?

It reminds me of my travels around the world, where I'd hang out with backpackers that would spend a long time in the supermarket looking for the cheapest noodles, instead of spending their time enjoying the exotic location they were in. Or spent half the day walking along the highway to a bus stop instead of taking a taxi that would cost $5.

I think it is fair that a search engine by default should be unbiased and look for the best result for the query, and not account for price or such.

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

#474

Post by objektif »

gwright wrote: post #421
objektif wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think a monopoly is? It is almost absolute power especially in industries where barrier to entry is super high.

Monopolies can only exist with government support via protection from competition. Expansive government power makes monopolies more likely and more stable than minimal government power.

This is a really naive way to look at things. For some reason you seem to believe that people that run corporations have better intentions that people who are in the government/politics.

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

#475

Post by tenebrisalietum »

shadowgovt wrote: post #106
randcraw wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make that 25 years ago, before the FAANGs came out.

N'ah, I remember that era. Search engines were basically worthless. Google was the first one to get the formula right. Before Google, search engines were basically just doing keyword matching and so you'd have the issue that every search for a programming topic landed you on expertsexchange. Google was the first to start leveraging click-away signal, and they were able to successfully down-sample keyword-farmers like…

Expertsexchange was one of the main reasons I began contributing to Stack Overflow in 2010-ish.

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

#476

Post by s__s »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #436
s__s wrote: post #429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These News orgs haven’t adapted. They’re sitting around publishing long winded, biased stories on their shitty Wordpress implementation with sketchy ads wondering why they’re failing. I’d happily pay good money for high quality news / journalism presented appropriately for the medium. That means a lot of concise real time information, coupled with long form discussion and debate. All packaged up in a modern, high qua…

Are you paying for Reuters, New York Times, WaPo, et al right now?

No I’m Canadian, and those are American. I subscribe to Apple News for access to some Canadian sources, including my local newspaper. Though I don’t think it’s very good.

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

#477

Post by LegitShady »

adra wrote: post #442
LegitShady wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

its going to do the exact opposite of what they said its going to do. Google and meta will disable linking to canadian news sites, canadian news sites won't receive the revenue from those visits. Meanwhile american news is still free to share in canada, so linking to american news will be the norm and the act to protect and fund canadian news will create an increase in consumption of US news and will remove money the…

Asa Canadian, I can safely say that any other country's news coverage would be better than the cesspool of US news would be on the table. This isn't a one way street either. Entrenched big tech use news and any other carrot to keep people locked into their closed platforms. Google Search, Google News, Facebook etc.. are just that much more ripe for disruption having one less bullet to keep the average person plugged…

You aren't locked into any news platform at all. They're all totally open and you're free to use any you want. You aren't removing a bullet to keep someone plugged into a walled garden here - as I said there's no restrictions on sharing US news, only canadian news. Google and facebook will continue to share US news and it will be the only news Canadians see from them, in effect reducing the reach of Canadian news and promoting american news consumption in canada.

So this bill does the opposite of what it claims to do - it reduces the reach of canadian news, increases the reach of american news, and reduces the amount of money coming in to canadian journalism. Its literally the opposite of everything it claims.

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

#478

Post by osigurdson »

pschuegr wrote: post #464
osigurdson wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With out a verifiable “roadmap to tyranny”, must we necessarily conclude that everything is fine?

"Everything is fine" is a position taken by nobody afaict. But if someone is going to make brash claims they better have more than just bluster otherwise they're actively worsening discourse IMO.

What claims can be made with current information in your opinion? Is the Trudeau regime , just another run of the mill Canadian government or possibly something more sinister (or at least more corrupt).

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

#479

Post by gwright »

objektif wrote: post #474
gwright wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Monopolies can only exist with government support via protection from competition. Expansive government power makes monopolies more likely and more stable than minimal government power.

This is a really naive way to look at things. For some reason you seem to believe that people that run corporations have better intentions that people who are in the government/politics.

Nope, I'm actually pretty cynical about intentions. But the government can detain me, arrest me, tax me, fine me, etc. A corporation can't do any of that.

I'm not sure what you really mean by "monopoly" or what sort of monopoly you think can persist in the absence of government support.

Note, I started my participation in this thread by advocating for minimizing government, which is not the same as eliminating government. So I'm not trying to assert an absolutist position that free markets should have no regulation.

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

#480

Post by jonny_eh »

morkalork wrote: post #201
jonny_eh wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> all have an axe to grind with is portrayed as the leftist woke media Are you calling the media woke, or are you saying that Conservative leaders are calling the media woke?

Sorry if not clear. I mean how it is being portrayed by conservative leaders, not a label I give it myself.

Thanks for clarifying!
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