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Ottawa pulls advertising, escalating showdown with Facebook and Instagram

nationalpost.com

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Re: Ottawa pulls advertising, escalating showdown with Facebook and Instagram

#31

Post by stewx »

jamincan wrote: post #28
stewx wrote: post #14

The TLDR of this issue: Canadian govt: When someone posts a link to a news article on Facebook, that is like stealing from that news publisher. Facebook: Your logic makes no sense, but okay, we will stop doing that. Govt: No, we don't want you to stop posting the links, we want you to pay a fee every time someone posts a link. Facebook: No thank you. Govt: You're bullying us and behaving irresponsibly! We won't stand…

Isn't the issue that Facebook/Google don't just share the link, they share the content behind the link as well?

No, the entire complaint about Facebook and Google is the links themselves. It's not anything about embedding articles (which I don't think either company does). They just show the headline and article metadata provided by the news publishers.

Re: Ottawa pulls advertising, escalating showdown with Facebook and Instagram

#32

Post by JumpCrisscross »

jamincan wrote: post #28
stewx wrote: post #14

The TLDR of this issue: Canadian govt: When someone posts a link to a news article on Facebook, that is like stealing from that news publisher. Facebook: Your logic makes no sense, but okay, we will stop doing that. Govt: No, we don't want you to stop posting the links, we want you to pay a fee every time someone posts a link. Facebook: No thank you. Govt: You're bullying us and behaving irresponsibly! We won't stand…

Isn't the issue that Facebook/Google don't just share the link, they share the content behind the link as well?

> Isn't the issue that Facebook/Google don't just share the link, they share the content behind the link as well

The fundamental issue is they "stole" the classified section that paid for the content. (Secondarily, they commoditized the content by owning the discussion around it.)

All that said, this is a solution that only makes sense to folks in media. The right one is a tax that funds a subsidy for news.

Re: Ottawa pulls advertising, escalating showdown with Facebook and Instagram

#33

Post by fooster »

jamincan wrote: post #28
stewx wrote: post #14

The TLDR of this issue: Canadian govt: When someone posts a link to a news article on Facebook, that is like stealing from that news publisher. Facebook: Your logic makes no sense, but okay, we will stop doing that. Govt: No, we don't want you to stop posting the links, we want you to pay a fee every time someone posts a link. Facebook: No thank you. Govt: You're bullying us and behaving irresponsibly! We won't stand…

Isn't the issue that Facebook/Google don't just share the link, they share the content behind the link as well?

Don't they use this? https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/snippet

Re: Ottawa pulls advertising, escalating showdown with Facebook and Instagram

#34

Post by JumpCrisscross »

kayodelycaon wrote: post #19
chomp wrote: post #3

> Facebook has decided to be unreasonable, irresponsible, and started blocking news. Are they acting unreasonably though? There is a product, and the government rules it has a price. Isn't Facebook allowed to go, sorry, I don't like that price?

> Isn't Facebook allowed to go, sorry, I don't like that price? It really depends on the laws involved. If the government decides Facebook accepting certain terms is the cost of business, then Facebook doesn't get a say in it. Kind of like taxes. If you want to operate in a country, you're taxed accordingly. In general, you don't get to not pay a tax just because you don't want to. Basically, if the law allows, they…

> Kind of like taxes

A tax to fund a newspaper subsidy would make sense. This isn't a tax. It's mandated commerce. We usually restrict that for protecting protected classes.

Re: Ottawa pulls advertising, escalating showdown with Facebook and Instagram

#36

Post by Wistar »

kneebonian wrote: post #21
infamouscow wrote: post #8

Seeding control of the mainstream media narrative over this silly law is going to have hilarious implications for the future of the Canadian government. Most importantly, it's now 10x harder to control the narrative and for the government to manufacture consent.

It's cedeing not seeding.

It's ceding not cedeing.

Re: Ottawa pulls advertising, escalating showdown with Facebook and Instagram

#37

Post by smsm42 »

The funniest part:

> But the Liberal government’s decision does not extend to the party. Liberal Party of Canada spokesperson Parker Lund said in a statement that the party would continue to advertise on Meta-owned platforms. According to the company’s ad library, the party spent nearly $15,000 on over 1,000 ads in the past month.

So: we would not deal with FB because it's evil, unless of course it could help us personally to win the elections, in which case of course we'll deal with them. Taxpayer money is another business, this is what you use for posturing.

Re: Ottawa pulls advertising, escalating showdown with Facebook and Instagram

#38

Post by adjav »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #32
jamincan wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the issue that Facebook/Google don't just share the link, they share the content behind the link as well?

> Isn't the issue that Facebook/Google don't just share the link, they share the content behind the link as well The fundamental issue is they "stole" the classified section that paid for the content. (Secondarily, they commoditized the content by owning the discussion around it.) All that said, this is a solution that only makes sense to folks in media. The right one is a tax that funds a subsidy for news.

> The right one is a tax that funds a subsidy for news.

The thing here though is that the Canadian government already does this. I really don't understand their logic with introducing this fee vs just raising the existing subsidy directly.

Re: Ottawa pulls advertising, escalating showdown with Facebook and Instagram

#39

Post by adjav »

kneebonian wrote: post #22

> “We’ve met both Google and Meta multiple times to better understand the concerns. We believe we have a path forward and we’re willing to continue talking with the platforms,” Rodriguez said. “We’re convinced what Google is asking at this moment can be done through regulations.” This here is the most concerning part. The government is making shady back room deals with large corporations. If I had to guess the nature…

Given that's exactly what ended up happening in Australia I wouldn't be surprised.

Re: Ottawa pulls advertising, escalating showdown with Facebook and Instagram

#40

Post by ecshafer »

kayodelycaon wrote: post #19
chomp wrote: post #3

> Facebook has decided to be unreasonable, irresponsible, and started blocking news. Are they acting unreasonably though? There is a product, and the government rules it has a price. Isn't Facebook allowed to go, sorry, I don't like that price?

> Isn't Facebook allowed to go, sorry, I don't like that price? It really depends on the laws involved. If the government decides Facebook accepting certain terms is the cost of business, then Facebook doesn't get a say in it. Kind of like taxes. If you want to operate in a country, you're taxed accordingly. In general, you don't get to not pay a tax just because you don't want to. Basically, if the law allows, they…

This isn't a tax though. This is mandating that company A sell company B's product, and also pay a set price, which may or may not be a fair price. Should a company be willing to happily go out of business because they are not allowed to sell at a fair market price?

This is actually a step further into absurdity since Facebook is not selling news articles, they are merely linking them. Its the equivalent of the Government telling me I need to pay Nike $5 every time I say the word Nike to someone.

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