Some reflections on the Australian experience and what they might mean for Canada.
After Google’s move on Thursday, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez sent a written statement calling the companies’ moves “deeply irresponsible and out of touch … especially when they make billions of dollars off of Canadian users” with advertising.
Australia’s regulatory experiment – the first of its kind in the world – also got off to a rocky start, but it has since seen tech companies, news publishers and the government reach a middle ground.
When does this come into affect? When I search generic news I’m still getting back Canadian new sources like CBC.
Bill C-18 will come into force later this year. It requires regulatory provisions that will need to be formally published and consulted through The Canada Gazette etc.
This seems to be Meta & Google flexing and doing their worst to local media before the proposed regulations are published.
Here’s a CBC breakdown from last Friday.
Reacting to Google’s announcement Thursday, Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez told CBC News conversations with the company are ongoing and the “clarity” it wants about the Online News Act will come as the government hammers out regulations.
Here’s the 44-1/C-18 information page for the Parliament of Canada.
Hopefully we change this law. Trying to charge people for links is incredibly bad. There is no need for any law. If the news sites want to get money for links they can just put all their articles behind a login gate and make them not scrapable.
Trying to charge people for links is incredibly bad.
Good thing the law isnt charging people but the richest and most powerful corporations on the planet!
News sites used to generate a lot of ad revenue. Now, Google and Facebook combine to receive 80% of all ad revenue. If you see an ad online, it’s likely Google or Facebook got paid for it.
But why do they make so much ad money? Because they host links to what people want. They’re making tens of billions simply by hosting links to the content of others, who aren’t making money anymore because advertisers give their money to the link hosters and not the content creators. This “link tax” is a way to ensure the content creators get their fair share. Google and Facebook don’t create content, they link to it. Why should they get all the money?
So the hotel concierge doesn’t actually 'do anything
Google and Meta are not the internet. They think it belongs to them and act like it’s their kingdom. But they’re wrong.
The Canadian government is also not the Internet, and Canadians have no natural or legal rights to news access via Google or Meta.
What a clusterfuck among organizations that I hate.
In the end I hope Google and Meta win this fight because government regulation of the internet has contributed to a lot more death and suffering than corporate regulation has.
10,000 seems like small potatoes compared to what China and North Korea does, now add in a couple dozen other countries which include places like Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.
They want to make an example of Canada… When companies have enough power to even think about trying and make an example out of a country then they need to be dismantled or, even better, nationalized because it means they’re important enough to be considered utilities.
