31–40 of 98 posts
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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?
if information about disasters is “content,” then the correct answer is “everyone.”
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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.
Seems like the loss of local news has become more like a dying societal model.
Some countries have SMSes from the government and/or officials going around with loudspeakers. Maybe Canada has all of that and more. If not, I can hardly blame Facebook for the lack of coordination at state level.
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.
If there are additional costs involved in distribution then the government should provide reasonable subsidies.
The Canadian government should find ways to produce public information about the fires, and find ways to distribute that.
I am all for punishing Facebook in many ways. But if they want to use Facebook to publish public service info, don’t make demands that Facebook allow sharing articles from commercial news agencies. Make a deal with Facebook to have Facebook distribute government official information about the fires to peoples Facebook feeds.
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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 d…
Ok now imagine the gov passes a law saying “if you insert junkmail into a letter containing a newspaper clipping, you have to pay a fee to the newspaper”.
Where’s the problem? Either they stop inserting ads, or they pay.
As for “make less money” vs “stop existing” - having journalism exist is in the publics interest. If one business threatens to cause another to go out of business we might not care, but in this case the business is theoretically socially important.
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.
I love rules. But they often get perverted into something terrible and ugly by people who only want to exert power over others. I love the first order effects. I love the second order effects. I love the weird edge cases. Then some power hungry sociopath comes into the room and belches "serve me" and vomits a rule onto the ground. It's clear they haven't thought about this any further than simply wanting the masses t…
I'm not a fan of Facebook but I totally support their position and what's even crazier now is that the CBC and others who pushed this are now asking the Canadian Gov to sue Facebook because of this.
It's typical behavior of a Gov/Society that is protectionist.They cheered when Trudeau and Freeland made all the Telcos Canadian media companies to protect them from competition (American). Canadians typically cut their nose off to spite their face, there is a long list of everything from dairy, eggs, duty free allowances when crossing the border, etc that they vehemently supported during NAFTA II (because America sucks) that they now complain about. All I can say is enjoy the cost of your mobile rates, food prices, 1.80 CAD a liter for fuel.
Just saying...