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

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201–210 of 503 posts

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

#201

Media in Canada is in pretty dire straits right now. It looks like one of the last left-ish leaning papers (Toronto Star) is about to be gobbled up by post media. A huge swath of broadcast news media is owned by just one company, Bell which predictably leads to stories like "Top Bell Media executive urged CTV to avoid ‘negative spin’ on coverage of parent company". Plus the current batch of conservative leaders (PP,…

> 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.

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

#202

A side effect of this implies that if the internet platforms drop all Canadian media as a result of this law, it demonetizes all Canadian media, and then the only Canadian media that survives is what is directly subsidized by the government at its discretion. I see why this "works" now. The effect is censorship and silencing of disfavoured outlets with the pretense of deniability. This country is a lost cause.

Possible non-sequitur: ... "if the internet platforms drop all Canadian media as a result of this law, it demonetizes all Canadian media, and then the only Canadian media that survives is what is directly subsidized by the government at its discretion." Does Canadian media have no other revenue stream other than the Internet?

Yes, let them eat radio spots.

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

#203
post #91

Deeply shameful, as a Canadian. I did not ask for this.

Yeah, it doesn't look like they asked every single individual Canadian what they wanted. But here are the details for what was driving this. https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/fair-re...

You have it backwards. Thats the way they justify what they already had planned. That didn’t drive this, that’s the post-decision excuse. “We consulted with stakeholders and press decided they really wanted that money”

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

#204
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.

I don't see how we can call this nationalistic politics. I'm sure if a (hypothetical) Canadian big-tech impacted news organizations similarly, they would also have been a target of this law.

Many of the biggest tech have origins in US and any country trying to make a law regulating businesses and technology within its borders is bound to impact American companies one way or the other. We can take the easy route and call it just nationalism or we can try to understand the intention/reasons behind the law. We may not agree with their laws but it is their right.

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

#205
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.

> 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. Would this prevent embedding links into your posts? I thought it's about platforms displaying enough information discouraging the person to visit the news site. I get that they want people to stay on their platforms 24/7 but I also g…

When they said uncapped financial liability, I took that to also mean any meta user's post or search engine result that displayed the content could expose them financially - If I were a malicious actor, I would flood meta with posts from bots, and the equivalent to google results like posting too much of the article in the website's header.

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

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if I understand correctly, those companies are now going to be forced into paying for products that they cannot just stop using?

Someone might correct me, but I believe that’s what France did.

I think you are right. I vaguely remember French publishers losing revenue after Google News stopped referencing them.

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

#207
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…

> This doesn't make sense. Newspapers want links to their stories.

Newspapers want monetization. There are three ways linking to stories equal monetization:

* Newspapers get enough ad money through these link. This mostly doesn't work.

* Newspapers cut their costs and deliver shitty clickbait.

* Newspapers get funded by "philantropy". This ranges from newspapers independently funded by trust funds to newspapers being bought by magnates.

Overall, we can see that linking is far from enough for most newspapers to publish independent, quality work.

> To receive a link is to benefit, everyone knows this except the government.

This appears to no longer be true. Groups benefiting from internet are mostly eyeball brokers, not content distributors.

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

#208
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…

> The law mandates that social networks cannot cease publishing the content So, how does Brazil stop them from withdrawing from Brazil entirely?

Money. They will remain here as long as there's still profit to be made. Would be awesome if they had enough balls to tell the brazilian government to go to hell but they just aren't gonna do that as long as they're making money.

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

#209
Not a problem. Go to ChatGPT and ask it to tell you the top ten Canadian media outlets. You can also ask for the top ten left-leaning, right-leaning, and tech/sci/engineering outlets. Then go to Wikipedia to get the urls for each. Bookmark all the sites and write a little Python scraper to get all the headlines each day. Then, say goodbye to Alphabet and Meta.

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

#210

Media in Canada is in pretty dire straits right now. It looks like one of the last left-ish leaning papers (Toronto Star) is about to be gobbled up by post media. A huge swath of broadcast news media is owned by just one company, Bell which predictably leads to stories like "Top Bell Media executive urged CTV to avoid ‘negative spin’ on coverage of parent company". Plus the current batch of conservative leaders (PP,…

So, would this law make the Star even cheaper, for acquisition, as it reduces the reach of the Star?
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