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Canada demands Meta lift news ban to allow wildfire info sharing

reuters.com

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Re: Canada demands Meta lift news ban to allow wildfire info sharing

#11

Post by kennywinker »

prepend wrote: post #5
hirundo wrote: post #4

Where is Google News on this? Searching for "fire yellowknife" I see for example links to articles from the Toronto Star, CBC and Calgary Herald. Is Google paying for the privilege of displaying those links?

That’s just as stupid as Canada trying to force Facebook to pay news companies because users were sharing articles with each other. We’re in a “stupid, arbitrary rule” situation and users are finding workarounds. Canada’s law seems dumb to me. Yes, news companies make less money because of Facebook, but it’s users communicating. Should the postal service pay the newspapers if people start mailing people letters with…

Newspaper clippings via mail? That’s screenshots. You can take a screenshot and post it no problem.

> Yes, news companies make less money because of Facebook

Seems to me they don’t just “make less money”, it’s more like they “stop existing”.

Re: Canada demands Meta lift news ban to allow wildfire info sharing

#12

Post by cowsup »

hexo wrote: post #6
entuno wrote: post #3

Has the Canadian government exempted articles about the wildfires from fees? If not, they don't really have any right to complain that Facebook doesn't want to pay to share them. At the end of the day, they're a private company who are looking to make a profit, not an emergency broadcast system.

No, at the end of the day, they are SO BIG that they are more like a public place/space, where you cannot really dictate your own rules, even as a owner of such place (for example restaurants is some countries. cell phone network operators.). FB should really cut the bullshit.

> they are SO BIG that they are more like a public place/space, where you cannot really dictate your own rules

The Canadian government disagrees. They think Facebook stands to have significant financial gain for the privilege of their users sharing Canadian news sites, to the point where Facebook has to pay a fee for that privilege.

You can't simultaneously say "Facebook is a public place, people should be allowed to post whatever they want" and also "Facebook should have to pay a fee if they want their users to be able to post whatever they want."

Re: Canada demands Meta lift news ban to allow wildfire info sharing

#13

Post by crest »

hexo wrote: post #6
entuno wrote: post #3

Has the Canadian government exempted articles about the wildfires from fees? If not, they don't really have any right to complain that Facebook doesn't want to pay to share them. At the end of the day, they're a private company who are looking to make a profit, not an emergency broadcast system.

No, at the end of the day, they are SO BIG that they are more like a public place/space, where you cannot really dictate your own rules, even as a owner of such place (for example restaurants is some countries. cell phone network operators.). FB should really cut the bullshit.

In this case I hate to have to agree with Meta. The Canadian government created the problem with its flawed policies designed to prop up a dying business model.

Re: Canada demands Meta lift news ban to allow wildfire info sharing

#14

Post by kennywinker »

entuno wrote: post #3

Has the Canadian government exempted articles about the wildfires from fees? If not, they don't really have any right to complain that Facebook doesn't want to pay to share them. At the end of the day, they're a private company who are looking to make a profit, not an emergency broadcast system.

As i understand it, the law that would require them to pay has not come into effect yet

Re: Canada demands Meta lift news ban to allow wildfire info sharing

#15

Post by benj111 »

hexo wrote: post #6
entuno wrote: post #3

Has the Canadian government exempted articles about the wildfires from fees? If not, they don't really have any right to complain that Facebook doesn't want to pay to share them. At the end of the day, they're a private company who are looking to make a profit, not an emergency broadcast system.

No, at the end of the day, they are SO BIG that they are more like a public place/space, where you cannot really dictate your own rules, even as a owner of such place (for example restaurants is some countries. cell phone network operators.). FB should really cut the bullshit.

If they are a public space, why are the government charging them for what the public do in that space?

I don't disagree with you, they aren't 'just' a private company. But through that optic the CA govts policy makes even less sense.

Re: Canada demands Meta lift news ban to allow wildfire info sharing

#17

Post by prepend »

kennywinker wrote: post #11
prepend wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s just as stupid as Canada trying to force Facebook to pay news companies because users were sharing articles with each other. We’re in a “stupid, arbitrary rule” situation and users are finding workarounds. Canada’s law seems dumb to me. Yes, news companies make less money because of Facebook, but it’s users communicating. Should the postal service pay the newspapers if people start mailing people letters with…

Newspaper clippings via mail? That’s screenshots. You can take a screenshot and post it no problem. > Yes, news companies make less money because of Facebook Seems to me they don’t just “make less money”, it’s more like they “stop existing”.

When they stop existing, that’s less money.

What I mean is that the postal service provides a server, people mailing letters. Facebook’s service is people messaging each other.

If people started sending links to each other in the mail and it kills newspapers, should the postal service pay?

People message all sorts of stuff on Facebook. And it frequently causes companies to make less money and/or stop existing. That doesn’t mean Facebook should pay those companies to keep existing.

Re: Canada demands Meta lift news ban to allow wildfire info sharing

#19

Post by ksaj »

Amazing what greed can do. They want to make money from the news, yet they don't want to pay the news sources for letting them feed off of it.

If a Canadian outfit wanted to host news and other media from the US, you know it wouldn't happen without payments in kind to the American news or media outlet.

Re: Canada demands Meta lift news ban to allow wildfire info sharing

#20

Post by kennywinker »

davikr wrote: post #7

Good, this is a consequence of pure rent-seeking lobbying from big newspapers. > There have been 52 registered meetings with Ministers, MPs, and senior officials or roughly one meeting every four days since election day nearly 8 months ago. This represents an astonishing level of access and may help explain why the concerns of independent media and the broader public are missing from the bill. [1] [1]: https://www.mi…

Facebook wants to make money off selling ads next to other people’s content.

News media wants to get paid for the content they pay to create.

Who’s rent seeking again?

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