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Meta is so unwilling to pay for news under a new Canadian law that it's starting to block it on Facebook and Instagram in that country (fortune.com)

submitted 1 year ago by L4s to c/technology

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Meta is so unwilling to pay for news under a new Canadian law that it's starting to block it on Facebook and Instagram in that country::The rollout of the news ban on Facebook and Instagram for users in Canada will take place over the next few weeks.

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[–] Nastybutler 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No one here is realizing the ridiculousness of telling an internet company that DRIVES TRAFFIC to journalism they must pay for the privilege of sending them the traffic. I'm not a fan of FB, but extorting a company for sending you business is like a reverse protection racket. Whether it's FB or Google, or Duck Duck Go, it's asinine.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

As I understood it from a previous incarnation of this topic where it involved Google it's less nonsensical than it sounds (at least it was in that specific case, this one may be different, so take this post with a grain of salt).

The thing these media companies have issue with is that their content is displayed on the social media website's feed, usually in the form of a headline and a short summary. Many people will only read the headline and this summary and will never actually visit the website of the media company, so they can't monetize these users through the ads on their website or through subscription services. Meanwhile Google/Facebook get to extract value from their content for free.

Of course by that logic you could maybe also say that users should get paid for posting links as they have added their own value by curating the content displayed on the social media site, but they don't have a team of lobbyists. :)