from Hacker News

Publishers in Canada urge regulator to prevent Meta from restricting news access

by finphil on 8/11/23, 2:35 PM with 71 comments

• by Dystopian on 8/11/23, 3:27 PM

  As a Canadian, I find the whole saga of how our government works with the technology sector bat-shit crazy.

  All of the media's coverage up here is disingenuously about tech overreach and not about how their lobbyists tried to double-dip on revenue (both demanding an estimated $329M/year[1] from tech companies, while also receiving the ad revenue from ++1.9B pageviews[2]).

  The problem is there'll probably be some kind of settlement between the government, news companies, and tech. But while this drags on, the larger oligopoly of news outlets will come out alive, while smaller news outlets are really going to suffer financially.

  If you want to read more about our government's recent brain-dead policies on technology you can look up:

  C-11: A streaming services bill that mandates Canadian content on foreign streamers. Not horrible, but also a great way to have "This service is not available in your region." notices in your country.

  DST: A "just because" global digital services tax of 3%, which will definitely be passed onto consumers, if not lead to service blockages in Canada.

  C-18: ↑ This bill. Pretty much a shakedown by the government and media companies.

  > This is coming from a registered liberal party member, who's socially liberal and is consistently confronted with the thought that I may actually be conservative.

  [1] https://www.pbo-dpb.ca/en/publications/RP-2223-017-M--cost-e... [2] https://about.fb.com/news/2022/05/how-meta-supports-news-pro...

• by unsubstantiated on 8/11/23, 3:07 PM

  This is one game where MAD is the winning move to play. I'd like for Meta et al to block Canadian news. I'd also like for Canadian news to block Meta et al. Their endless funnels of garbage that predominantly serve to rile people up are something we could all do with less of. And that goes from both sides.

• by MAGZine on 8/11/23, 3:11 PM

  The best I can tell, meta is deliberately overapplying the law in an attempt to rally public sentiment against a law they don't like.

  An example of this is where meta has basically "regionally suspended" some news accounts. Some Canadians (a/b testing) going to Instagram pages owned by a News Orgs see "sorry, blocked, bitch at the government." But the law doesn't say news orgs can't use social media unless Meta pays them.

  It's not the first time Canada has seen this sort of bad behaviour from entitled companies. I've seen literally this overapplication strategy in other instances.

  Perhaps the law should be tweaked. Perhaps it should not be. But this actively damages my view of Meta. maybe the fact they hate this so much is an indication the government is doing something right.

  Maybe Canadians will be inspired to get their own news instead of consuming whatever viewpoint Meta deems acceptable (and yes I think actual domestic journalism is a better source than Meta).

• by 1024core on 8/11/23, 3:01 PM

  > The move follows the passage of Canada's Online News Act, aimed at boosting revenue for Canadian journalism outlets by mandating compensation from companies like Meta and Google's parent company, Alphabet, for hosting and linking to their content.

  Well, Canada fucked around and found out.

• by seryoiupfurds on 8/11/23, 3:53 PM

  Imagine there's a local newspaper with a community events section. The event organizers say the newspaper is stealing from them because it profits from having ads on the same page, so the government makes them pay $10 to each event they feature. The newspaper decides the community events section isn't worth the trouble and just removes it, and everybody including the government whines that the big bad corporation is bullying them. If they actually believed the original argument that it was stealing, they should be happy that they stopped!

  I'm sure glad the government is focusing on important issues like this while being dismissive of the housing crisis.

• by kemayo on 8/11/23, 3:14 PM

  "You're not allowed to not do the things you have to pay us for" sounds a bit iffy, not gonna lie.

• by lacksconfidence on 8/11/23, 3:06 PM

  They took the wrong approach. The simple answer was to tax the companies you want to pay, and then give the money to the people you want to give money to. Instead they put together this rube goldberg machine and facebook is noping out.

• by thefurdrake on 8/11/23, 3:26 PM

  So... Meta is engaged in anticompetetive behavior by removing itself from the market?

  How, exactly, will that cause a reduction in competition in the market? I think it's GREAT that a cancer peddler like Meta is removing itself. Neat.

  ... I hate being on Meta's side, but the Canadian authorities have truly taken leave of their senses.

• by SllX on 8/11/23, 2:57 PM

  So how does pulling out of the news aggregator market and refusing to serve that function violate the law they cited in the article?

• by lambersley on 8/11/23, 4:04 PM

  This is nothing more than Big Gov trying to save the dinosaurs. The Canadian media giants have not evolved at the pace of technology. They have no innovated since print and radio. Of course their revenue streams are drying up. And of course Big Gov is tired of subsidizing a failing enterprise. Though, it would be interesting if Mr. Trudeau countered with blocking a Meta traffic in Canada.

• by xeckr on 8/11/23, 3:42 PM

  Does the US have an entrepreneur visa yet, or favourable terms for Canadian entrepreneurs wishing to immigrate?

• by ChrisArchitect on 8/11/23, 4:10 PM

  This blog post days later discussing trying to prevent the thing that happened already...

  Here's the discussion from 5 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37025233

• by nemo44x on 8/11/23, 3:19 PM

  It’s sort of scary how authoritarian Canada has become in recent years. From compelled speech, gun confiscation, to financially alienating political dissenters to now possibly trying to force companies to participate in things they don’t want to.

  What’s going on up there?

• by blastonico on 8/11/23, 3:01 PM

  Wow, the newspaper industry seems desperate.

  Oppressors becoming oppressed?

• by goodbyesf on 8/11/23, 3:12 PM

  Meta should just block canada altogether. Nobody would notice or care.