They made it so social media companies have to pay for the news. It’s Meta that’s doing the blocking.
As I understand it, meta has announced they will be deplatforming Canadian news and links. In retaliation, the federal government will no longer pay for advertisements on their platform.
I’m now realizing that I read your title wrong. my brain messed with the word ‘advertising’ and told me that was referring to the news that’s no longer being allowed on the sites. Stupid brain.
If I read correctly, they’re just complying. If they don’t want to pay, they need to filter out the content. It’s not really retaliation, but following the law
From what we saw in earlier reports, the draft regulations haven’t even been gazetted for consultation yet.
It sound like Meta is acting preemptively to put pressure on the government.
It sound like Meta is acting preemptively to put pressure on the government.
There isn’t much pressure to exert. C-18 has already received Royal Assent. The people of Canada have spoken, and this is what they want. Given that this is what Canadians have proclaimed as being what they want, why would Facebook wait?
If homicide laws were being introduced for the first time, and not yet in effect, are you going to kill a few people while you still can? Or are you going to realize that people don’t like being murdered and conclude that maybe you should not do that even if the law still technically allows?
Ahh can’t believe I missed that it wasn’t enacted yet - thanks!
The legislation had Royal Assent, but coming into force and the publication of final regulations and, in turn, their effective date are yet further steps.
I believe Google announced that they’re doing the same thing, but haven’t actually pulled the plug yet. They’re probably just waiting until the law comes into effect and just drop Canadian news instead of negotiating payment.
BC followed suit awhile back as well. I saw that the federal government was spending $10M per year so not an insignificant amount.
I never quite understood this law, it seems delusional.
A free an open internet doesn’t work if you need to pay to link to something.
Facebook makes money off the advertising people see as they read the news feeds. Canada’s saying they must share some of that with the companies they’re using the content of.
The act is not any linking of news content, but of aggregation, ranking, or an index of news content, or the distribution of the news or any portion thereof. So, specifically tailoring news for users, it’s expected that the companies who are profiting from that tailoring of the news kick-back a portion of the profits to the outlets who need to be paid to create it in the first place.
