Facebook owner Meta carries out threat to block news in Canada. Google plans to do the same

[rangerrebew]

Facebook owner Meta carries out threat to block news in Canada. Google plans to do the same
 
MENLO PARK, California (AP) — Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta is keeping its promise to block news content in Canada on its platforms in response to a new law that requires tech giants to pay publishers for linking to or otherwise repurposing their content online.

Google's owner Alphabet has said it plans to do the same, although it does not appear to have followed through yet. The company said in a June blog post that it will begin removing news links in the country when the law takes effect — expected in December.

Meta has threatened to block links to news sites in Canada for nearly a year in response to the law, which passed in late June. The social media company said the Online News Act “is based on the incorrect premise that Meta benefits unfairly from news content shared on our platforms, when the reverse is true.”

 https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/facebook-owner-meta-carries-out-threat-to-block-news-in-canada-google-plans-to-do-the-same/ar-AA1eKzad?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=eb89ca95cd624ba3816996102519389b&ei=54

[Smokin Joe]

Sounds like a win for those who want to control narratives.

[corbe]

   @sneakypete

[PeteS in CA]

OK, in the US, copyright law allows "Fair Usage". Under this principle, a person - perhaps on an Internet discussion site such as TBR - can link to and quote a fairly small % of an article and not violate the copyright of the article owner. Other Fair Usage application contexts range from book reviews to academic publications. How US copyright law compares to other countries' I do not know, but the kinds of contexts in which Fair Usage applies suggests to me that other countries have similar laws and interpretation.

So, what do I think Canada is up to? Stifling public discussion is a possibility. Another possibility is that it is a way to loot and hobble Big Bad US Bogey-Corporations. "Both" is a possibility. While I use FB - mostly for people connections and almost never for news - I'm not a Meta/FB fanboy. In this case, though, a Big Bad US Bogey-Corporation is teaching the gooberment of Canuckia that Canadian news sources are not all that essential, and that those Canadian news sources will be the ones hurt, not Meta/FB.

For the terminally curious, FB's campus is in Menlo Park rather than neighboring Redwood City (see the top of the linked and quoted article). The campus is located off US 101 near the SR84 (Dumbarton) bridge. The campus was formerly the HQ campus for Sun Microsystems. Sun had other buildings on the Newark side of the Dumbarton Bridge, but MPK was their HQ.