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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

#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.

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

#5
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?

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

#6
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.

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

#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.michaelgeist.ca/2022/04/how-did-news-media-canad...

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

#9
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?

The (relevant parts of the) legislation haven't come into force yet - most of the sections of the Online News Act don't come into force until the "a day to be fixed by order of the Governor in Council". Facebook is preemptively complying with the law before it's brought into force, but Google is waiting until it actually comes into effect (https://blog.google/intl/en-ca/company-news/outreach-initiat...).

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

#10
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?

The law hasn’t come into effect yet, meta was early with its implementation. Google said they would do the same thing once the law applies.
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